The Green Skull
by Cinderelly0087
Summary: Follows Lily and James throughout their 1st and 2nd yrs. They get off to the wrong start when James pulls a playful prank on Lily and embarasses her. However, there are more important things that capture the kids attention... Chp 16 is up! R&R :)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

It was Lily's first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and she could hardly wait. Although the train departed at eleven o'clock, she had woken up at five in anticipation of the upcoming day. Not only had she woken up at that ungodly hour, but she had accidentally woken her sister, Petunia, as she tripped over her newly-bought school supplies as she walked out of the room that they both shared.

As you can imagine, Petunia wasn't happy about this. Lily could only imagine how much her sister would love it once she moved out and Petunia could have their old room all to herself. Lily knew she would miss Petunia, although she doubted whether her and her sister would miss her. They had never gotten along very well, even for sisters. Petunia was always more interested in make-up and boys, while Lily was more interested in her friends, football, and her schoolwork.

If their opposite personalities didn't make you think that they weren't twins, their lack of identicalness certainly would. For twins, they didn't look anything alike—you wouldn't have even guessed that they were related. Petunia was tall, boney, and horse-faced, with short brown hair, an upturned nose and big brown eyes—her prettiest feature. Lily, however, was short, average-weight, and had a heart-shaped face, long red hair, a straight, classic nose, and emerald green eyes.

"What the hell did you wake me up for?" Petunia asked sleepily.

"I'm so sorry! I woke up and I couldn't get back to sleep, so I decided to go down and watch some television." Lily apologized.

"It's like the middle of the freaking night! There isn't gonna be anything on, moron." Petunia said, clearly annoyed.

"It's not the middle of the night, it's five o'clock, dimwit." Lily protested.

"We'll excuse me if I don't get off my ass a look at the clock when I've just been aroused at five o'clock in the damn morning. Still, I rest my case. There isn't gonna be a thing on. Now will you excuse me? I'm going back to sleep!" With that, Petunia turned on her side to face the wall and didn't say another word.

Lily walked downstairs quietly, so as to not wake her parents up. She crept past the kitchen, into the living room and searched for the remote. After finding it, she turned the TV on and turned the volume down low. Much to Lily's dismay, however, Petunia was right, there wasn't anything on. She supposed that not many people woke up and watched TV at five in the morning.

She sat down for a few minutes, thinking of what to do. She resolved that she would look through her school things, for the hundredth time, and maybe learn a new spell. She had read the first few chapters in all of her schoolbooks and decided that she liked working with charms the best. She deciphered that they were the most useful, since you could use them to fix things, clean things up, make people happy and do a lot of other useful things. The other class that seemed utterly pointless, in Lily's mind, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. For although it was useful to know how to protect yourself against unwanted spells, her History of Magic textbook had said that the Ministry of Magic had officials who protected the wizarding world against bad witches and wizards.

She sat down and tried to learn the repairing charm. Its incantation was "Repairo!" However, Lily had so much energy bundled up inside of her, that she couldn't learn anything. She figured that she had plenty of time to learn it, since they wouldn't be working on it in class until second term. Instead, she decided to go outside, and say good bye to the neighborhood that she wouldn't see again until Christmas.

It was nearly ten fifteen and Elizabeth Potter was frantically running around the house trying to find her son. Nearly five minutes later, she found him asleep in bed.

"James! What are you doing? I woke you up an hour ago!" She asked indignantly.

"Sorry mum! Must've dosed off again…" James claimed sleepily.

"Well get up, you need to make sure you have anything." His mum said.

"Don't worry mum, I packed last night. I have everything I need for school." James replied.

"That's what you said when we went to France last year! You weren't very happy about wearing the same boxers for a whole 2 weeks! How would you feel if that happened now, only you had to wait until Christmas to get more from home?" Mrs. Potter exclaimed.

"Mom, I learned my lesson in Paris nothing like that is going to happen again. I got it all covered." James tried to calm his mother down.

"If you've got everything under control, why haven't we left yet? We should be half way to the station by now." His mum cried.

"Okay mum! I get it! Now leave so I can get dressed."

With that, Elizabeth Potter left her son in his room, praying that he wouldn't miss the train.

Having riding a train to Scotland many times previously, Lily knew that there was no Platform 9 ¾. During her trip to Diagon Alley, when she received her ticket, she pointed this out to Rubeus Hagrid. Although Hagrid was new at his job, he knew how to answer that question. For he himself had completed three years at the school. He simply told me to walk in between barriers 9 and 10 at the station.

However, when staring at the barrier, Lily became unsure of what Hagrid said. The brick seemed completely solid, and Lily didn't think that it was possible, even for a witch to walk through it. She just stood there for a minute staring at it. Petunia finally broke the silence.

"Are you gonna leave already? Or are we gonna be stuck with you for another damn year?" She asked.

"Petunia, darling, you know I don't like it when you use that sort of language. But Lily dear, Petunia's right, you might want to hurry up so that you can find a good compartment on the train." Her mother said pleasantly.

"Sorry mum. But Lily seriously, GO! We'll see you at Christmas, alright?" Petunia said, growing impatient.

That's when it truly hit Lily how long she was going to be gone until. Christmas. She was going to be gone for nearly four months. She wouldn't see her family for four months. The longest that she'd ever been gone in the past was a weeklong summer camp. Even then, she had to call her parents every day to save herself from getting home sick. She ran up and hugged both of her parents one last time.

"I'm gonna miss you!" she cried into her mom's shoulder.

"I'm going to miss you too, honey." Her mother replied. And for the first time, in as long as Lily could remember, she saw a tear running down her mother's cheek.

With that, Lily turned around and headed towards the barrier. When she got there, she still wasn't sure. Just to make sure, Lily reached out her hand to touch the brick. Only, Lily didn't feel anything but the air on the other side of the barrier. With a new rush of confidence, Lily ran through the barrier and onto the platform.

At ten thirty, eleven-year-old James potter was running around his home trying to find his wand.

"I told you to check twice! I knew you would forget something—but your wand of all things! How could you loose your wand?" Elizabeth asked, stunned.

"I didn't loose it, I just misplaced it!" James said, "I was using it last night down by the table I know I was. Alan probably took it!"

"What would your brother want with your wand? He doesn't know any spells!" Elizabeth asked.

"I don't know! Ask him!"

"ALAN! CAN YOU COME HERE FOR A MINUTE?"

"SURE MUM!"

With that seven-year-old Alan came running into the room. "Yes mum?" he asked innocently,

"Did you take your brother's wand?"

"No, mum."

"Are you sure honey?"

"Mummy, I swear I didn't…"

"…DON'T LISTNE TO HIM! HE DID, I SWEAR HE DID!" James interrupted.

"NO I DIDN'T" Alan yelled back.

"YES HE DID"

"DID NOT"

"DID TOO"

"DID…"

"…QUIET! The both of you. Now settle down so we can figure out what happened to James' wand. Alan, are you positive you don't know where it is?"

"Yes mummy."

"No your not, just give me my damn wand."

"JAMES! You know I don't like it when you use that word! Alan, will you help us find James' wand?"

"Sure mummy." Alan said. With that he ran off to do God knows what.

"James, are you still looking for your wand?" James' father, Thomas Potter, walked into the room, holding his wand.

"Dad! My wand! Where did you find it?"

"In your brother's room, under his bed. Don't get mad at him now, you have to hurry if you want to make the train.

When Lily got through the barrier, she looked up to see a magenta train with "The Hogwarts Express" printed on the side in gold lettering. She quickly boarded the train and found an empty compartment—she didn't want to disrupt anyone. She just sat there, staring out of the window, not being able to wait to see what happened next.

A few minutes later, a boy with blonde hair came into her compartment, followed by a greasy-haired with a hooked nose. They were obviously having an argument.

"For the last time Severus, NO, I do NOT think it would be funny to curse Peter Pettigrew." The blonde haired one said.

"But Remus, he's an insult to the pure-blood name. Waddling around the school, loosing everything, hanging out with those who can protect him." Said the hook-nosed one, or Severus as the other boy called him. "Come on. It could be fun."

"No, I don't think so." Said Remus, "See, unlike you, I don't have fun hurting people just for the hell of it. Throwing a couple of stink bombs is one thing, or turning him into a frog, but actually cursing him. No. Severus. Not even I am that mean."

Remus turned and looked a Lily. "Hi. I'm Remus Lupin and this is Severus Snape. You are?"

"Lily" she answered, somewhat taken aback that they had even noticed her at all. To her, they had seemed pretty into their own conversation. "How long have you guys been going here?"

"This is our first year." Said Remus.

"Your first year? How do you already know all about magic?" Lily asked.

"See we grew up in wizarding families. I suppose your parents are muggles?" Remus asked.

"Yep." Lily said. Hagrid had told her that wizards referred to non-magic people as muggles.

"Mudblood" Severus muttered and Remus elbowed him.

"What?" Lily asked confused

"Never mind." Remus said.

"How do you guys know each other?" Lily asked.

"We met in Diagon Alley the other day. Have you met anyone yet?" Remus asked.

"No it didn't really cross my mind that there would be other people from Hogwarts in Diagon Alley." Lily said. "I didn't even ask."

"Oh well, we just…" Remus started, but he stopped after the train stopped quite suddenly and two boys came running, clearly out of breath, into their compartment.

A/N: Well. That's the first chapter! I hope you guys enjoyed it! I know it might seem weird for Remus and Severus to be friends, but…

…let's just say I have a plan for that.

Just to warn you guys, the next update may not be for a couple of days. I'm going to try and write a couple more chapters before I update again. I just want to be on top of things!  Please read and review! I promise, if you're not enjoying it now it will get better!


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

'Oh shit!' James thought to himself, looking at the huge clock staring menacingly down at him from the station wall. 'It's almost eleven!'

After quickly hugging his parents' goodbye, and trying to kick Alan, James scrambled through the barrier and onto the platform. James had little time to notice his surroundings before yelping in astonishment as train's engine began to rumble and it began to move. James quickly sprinted after it trying to catch up.

James was almost on when he noticed another boy around his age running, as he was, a couple of paces behind him. Both of them continued to sprint towards the train, which was slowly progressing down the tracks, until they finally caught up with it. They rushed onto the train, climbed into the first compartment they saw, sat down on the seat, and burst out laughing.

"That was bloody bad!" The boy following James exclaimed between laughs. "I was freaked that I would miss the train and would have to spend another year with my mum—that would've been bad!"

"Yeah that was bad. But I wasn't afraid of having to spend another year with my family, they're alright, except my freaking brother. He's so damn annoying, you know?" James claimed after they had finished laughing. "Do you know how to send a howler?"

"No, but I'm sure someone in this bloody school does. I'm Sirius Black."

"Hi! I'm James Potter. And you are?" James asked, finally turning around to look at the other kids in their compartment.

"Remus Lupin." Said a blond, pale, and sweet-looking boy.

"Severus Snape." Said a boy with greasy black hair and a hook-nose.

"Lily Evans." Said a girl with emerald-green eyes and flame-red hair. Even though James wasn't into girls, he couldn't help but noticing she was pretty.

"That's cool." Said James in a monotone as he turned back to Sirius. "So, why were you late?" He asked.

"Oh...my mum didn't wake me up. So I slept in until ten thirty. Then she wouldn't drive me out to the station so I had to hitch hike. What about you?"

"Well it was my brother's fault really. He stole my wand last night and claimed he didn't have it, even though I knew he did. My mom and I spent like hours questioning him and he kept saying he didn't know where it was. My mom was on the verge of believing him when my dad walked in with my wand, saying he'd found it in my brother's room. My wand's, 11 inches, mahogany and has two phoenix feathers, Mr. Ollivander says it's really powerful." James bragged,"What's yours?"

"13 inches, willow, and a dragon heartstring. Wanna see?"

"Sure."

"Hold on it's in my trunk." Sirius looked in a couple places for his trunk before saying. "HOLY SHIT!"

"What?" said everyone in the compartment in unison.

"We left our trunks at the station!" Sirius moaned.

"Damn it, we did." said James looking horrified.

"What do we do?" Sirius asked.

"Well, one things for sure. We've got to get back to that station. We only left ten minutes ago. What's it if we're twenty minutes back to the feast?"

"Ermm, A LOT." Said Severus with raised eyebrows.

"Shut up, Snivillus." James said before walking out the door.

"It's Severus." Severus said with clenched teeth.

"Sorry Snivilly." Sirius said as he followed James.

With that, James and Sirius ran out of the compartment and to the nearest train official they saw—the food cart lady.

"Excuse me? M'am?" James asked timidly.

"Yes dears. What can I do for you? I have a two for one sale on chocolate frogs going today. Could I interest you in any?" The lady asked.

"Sure. We'll take…"

"…shut up Sirius. We left our trunks at the station and we need to go back there." James said.

"Ermm… I don't know what we can do about that. We've never been able to go back to the station before." The lady said.

"You're expecting us to last an entire year without our clothes, wand, books and, most importantly, broomsticks?" Sirius asked indignantly.

"You brought a broomstick? First years aren't aloud." James asked.

"You didn't listen to that silly rule did you?"

"No, but I thought that everyone else would. Anyways…" James said looking up at the pudgy lady.

"Why may I ask did you leave your bags at the station? Not exactly an easy thing to forget, are they?"

"Not easy to forget unless you're too preoccupied trying to catch up with the damn train." James said in a raised voice.

"You didn't bring them with you?" The Lady asked.

"Have you ever tried running as fast as you could with a whole shit load of stuff?" Sirius asked. "Now are you going to help us or not?"

"I'll go talk to the conductor." The pig-like lady said as she disappeared through a swinging door to their right.

"She was bloody annoying!" James exclaimed.

"Yea." Sirius agreed. "Let's go back to our compartment"

"With that Snape guy in it? No way!" James said.

"Oh, I believe that we can have old Snivillus running and screaming by the end of the train ride." Sirius said. "Anyways, I want to talk to that Lupin bloke more, he seemed interesting. I think he's got eyes for that girl though, he kept staring at her."

"I like the way your mind works. Once we get our wands back, we can give Snivillus' head a good washing." James chimed. "I wonder when well go back to the station."

At that precise moment, the train stopped for a second before heading backwards, towards the station.

Lily sat in her compartment staring out of the window. So far, her Hogwarts experience had fallen somewhat less than expectation. The three boys named Sirius, Remus and James were talking animatedly in the corner of the compartment. They hadn't necessarily excluded Lily from their conversation, but they were talking about things that she wasn't familiar with. The other boy, Snape, however, was just sitting there, glaring at her. She didn't think she could take it any longer. She got up and left the compartment, saying a quick "bye" over her shoulder, although she thought any of the boys would notice or care.

She turned in the hallway and walked into a compartment full of giggling girls around her age. By the way they looked at her she could tell that they didn't want her in there. But she decided to stay anyways, she needed to make some friends.

"Can I sit down?" she asked timidly.

"Sure!" Said a pretty girl with a round face, big eyes and brown hair perkily. "I'm Alice Carlton. I'm a third year Gryffindor hear."

"Sorry, but what do you mean by Gryffindor?"

"Oh are you muggle-born?" Lilly nodded. "Well that makes perfect sense then. There are four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. While you're at Hogwarts, your house is sort of like your family. Each house has a common room, and bedrooms. You share a room with the girls in your year and house. You also get points for your house: good things you do get you points and bad things you do loose them. At the end of the year the house with the most points wins the house-cup thingy. Last year it was Slytherin, and the year before that…"

"How do you find out what house you're in?" Lily asked, intrigued.

"I don't think I'm supposed to tell you that." Alice said mysteriously.

"My brother told me that it was some sort of test. Said something about trolls and goblins—before my mom hit him." Piped up a tan, short girl with a high-pitched voice, brown hair and a pretty face. "But I think he was lying. I'm Marlene McKinnon. You are?" She asked me.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm Lily Evans. What are your guys' names?" I asked looking at the two other girls in the compartment.

"I'm Kaitlyn Holmes." said a skinny and pretty girl with long blonde hair. "I'll be a first year too."

"I'm Theresa Winterson." Said a pale girl with dark brown hair and blue-green eyes. "I'm a third year Gryffindor with Alice. So what houses do you all want to be in?" Theresa asked.

"Gryffindor." Said Marlene flatly. "All my family's been in Gryffindor, and I'd feel horrible if I didn't get in."

"I don't know." Kaitlyn said, considering her options. "Gryffindor sounds nice, but Ravenclaw doesn't sound that bad either. I'd feel like a loser if I got into Hufflepuff though, or worse Slytherin."

Everyone then turned to Lily. She didn't know what to say, she knew nothing about any of the houses except for their names. She figured since both Marlene and Kaitlyn wanted to be in Gryffindor, that it wouldn't be too bad. She felt safe as she said "Gryffindor."

Kaitlyn and Marlene then decided to find the food-cart lady and buy some treats. When they left Theresa turned to Alice and said "So, what happened? Are you going to tell me or I'm I going to have to hex the answer out of you?" she asked, pointing her wand at Alice.

With a quick, but meaningful glance at Lily, Alice said, "I'll tell you later, okay?"

Lily took this as her cue to leave. She said "No, that's okay I'll leave." She then walked out of the compartment to find Kaitlyn and Marlene before anyone could stop her.

James, Remus and Sirius were in the middle of talking about Quidditch when the red haired girl got up and left. He didn't really care though, she didn't add much to their conversation. She was pretty though, nice to look at. He supposed that she got fed up with Snivillus glaring at her. They had planned out how they were going to embarrass Snape—it was perfect. As Snape was getting off the train they'd wash his hair and then push him into the lake that Remus' brother, Connor, had told Remus about.

James' thoughts broke of when Sirius hit him hard on the back. Both he and Remus were staring at him. "Sorry, what was the question?" he asked.

"What…house…do…you…want…to…be…in?" Sirius asked pausing in between each word and saying them loudly and clearly.

"Oh sorry, Gryffindor. I don't think my family's ever been in any other house…" James thought "…no actually I'm pretty sure they haven't. What about you guys."

"Well, as I just finished saying," Sirius started "My whole family's always been in Slytherin—they're obsessed with the whole 'pure-blood' thing. But I want to be in Gryffindor."

"GRYFFINDOR?" Snape asked, outraged for some reason. "YOU'RE A DISGRACE TO YOUR FAMILY'S NAME BLACK!" With that he left the compartment.

"What was that about?" James asked.

"Friend of the family." Sirius said casually.

"Friend?" Remus asked with raised eyebrows.

"You think he's bad, try having a damn conversation with my mum. She's hella bad." Sirius said. "What about you Remus? What house do you want to be in?"

"I don't know yet. Probably either Gryffindor or Ravenclaw." Remus reasoned.

After a couple more minutes of conversing, Severus came in again. "Where have you been Remus? Why didn't you follow me?"

"Why would I have Snivillus?" Remus asked.

"You're telling me you'd rather hang out with these bastards than me?" Snape asked.

"No, I'd rather hang out with Sirius and James than you, Snivilly. Now leave and get out of my face. Unless you want me to make you get out of here." Remus yelled taking out his wand.

"Wow Remus what was that?" James asked.

"He shouldn't think that he could get away with calling you guys 'bastards.'" Remus said, still outraged.

When Lily got to the food-cart, she saw Marlene and Kaitlyn talking. She about to say "hi" to them when she heard her name. She darted into an empty compartment and left the door open a little so she could hear what they were saying.

"So Katie, what did you think of that new girl? Lily, I think."

"She's okay, I guess. Seemed sort of weird though."

"Are you kidding? I didn't like her at all. She doesn't know a thing about our world and she doesn't belong in it. I don't know about them letting all these muggle-borns into our world."

"I thought you were above all that pure-blood crap, Marlene. But I agree, I don't like her much. Her red hair is so bright that I'm getting a headache just looking at it. I hope she's not in my house, she seemed really annoying and rather clingy—I hate people like that."

"Yeah, you're right…" Lily had heard enough she shut the compartment door, sat down on the seat and started crying. She was alone, in and unfamiliar place and without any family and friends. Oh well, in situations like this, all you can go is up, Lily decided.

A/N: Ok so there's the train ride for you, and the first bad thing that happens to Lily. Don't worry though, her year will get better. She will make some friends, and her life will improve. Although, in the next chapter, James plays a trick on Lily that will make her hate him forever…

…I've said too much already!

Please read and review! I'd really appreciate it! Thanks! 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

As the train came to a stop James and Sirius rushed out to find Snape. They soon found him talking to an older white-haired, pale boy—they would have to draw him away. They didn't feel like hexing an older student in fear of his retaliation. They did not, however, think that greasy-haired, hook-nosed Snape would be any threat to them after they pranked him. Luckily, the pale boy walked away before they had to think of a way to get Snape alone.

"So Snivillus," Sirius started, "When's the last time you took a shower." When Snape chose to ignore this comment Sirius continued, "cause we just wanted to let you know before you embarrassed yourself."

"Did you have a point in coming over here Black?" Snape asked, his thin eyes narrowed and some color finally seeping into his pale cheeks.

"Yeah actually we did" James said. "We just wanted to help you with the job."

"What job?" Snape asked.

In answer, James said "Scourgify!" When bubbles started to come out of Snape's hair, James, trying to stop from laughing, said, "Hmmm. Must have overdone the charm."

"Guess we'll just have to give you a good rinse-off then." Sirius laughed. He then pushed Snape into the water and looked up to see a crowd of people cheering at them. Even Remus, who hadn't approved of it from the beginning, was trying hard not to smile. James and Sirius didn't do anything to acknowledge their audience, instead, they just laughed. James decided that harmless hexes were fun, and he couldn't wait to find his next victim.

All the first-years, including Snape, followed a tall man called Hagrid into the boats while the other students went off in another direction.

As she was walking through the great hall, Lily looked up and saw the three boys she had shared a compartment with for the first part of the train ride staring at her. They must have been able to tell she was crying. With her light complexion, people could tell when she had been crying fairly easily. "What are you guys staring at?" She asked, outraged.

"Nnn-nothing!" Remus said quickly.

'Sirius was right, he definitely has the hots for her.' James thought.

"Why do I have to be so damn noticeable?" Lily muttered.

James saw this as a perfect opportunity, "Don't like being noticeable, do you Evans?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but no, I don't like to stick out"

"Sorry but your hair does a pretty good job at that." James claimed.

"Maybe I should just get rid of it then." She said both angrily and sarcastically.

"I have a better idea." James said.

"What is it?" she asked.

James muttered a spell under his breath and with a flash of light Lily's hair turned from flame red to mud brown.

"Ahhhh!" Lily exclaimed. "What did you do to me?"

"You said you wanted to blend in more."

"Don't you usually ask people before you turn their hair a different color?"

"Are you talking about a civilized person or James?" Sirius asked.

Lily chose to ignore this and demanded, "Change it back! NOW!"

"You want your hair to be flame red?" James asked, an idea forming in his mind.

"Yes, I do."

"Okay then." James muttered another spell and Lily's hair burst out in flame.

With that, Lily ran screaming from the room, and, to her astonishment, laughs and giggles followed her. Maybe leaving home wasn't the best idea after all.

"What's up with her?" James asked.

"I dunno mate, guess chicks don't like that sort of stuff. Bloody brilliant though." Sirius exclaimed.

"Chicks don't like that stuff? Try anyone in their right mind. Who'd want to have their hair lit on fire?" Remus said huffily.

"I dunno, never get cold in a blizzard, right?" Sirius said.

"I don't think you really mean that, but I'll keep it mind for when it snows." Remus said, finally allowing himself to laugh.

"I don't get it though; she said she wanted her hair to be 'flame-red.'" James said.

"I believe it was you who used those terms." Remus said. "Besides, you do get it, I know you're not that thick."

James pondered Remus' statement before saying, "Still, she agreed. Why do chicks have to be so damn sensitive?"

Remus was about to answer when Professor McGonagall came out with a stool and a hat. She left the hat on the stool so that it could explain how the sorting would work. At the end of the cheesy song, the whole crowd erupted and Sirius and James looked at each other and burst out laughing. It seemed too easy that the way that they would be sorted was by a hat.

Professor McGonagall than began to call out the names:

"Anstruther, Rachel"

A cute girl with auburn-brown hair and a few light freckles on her nose, sat on the stool and put the hat on. It went down to cover her forehead and eyes. She just sat there on the stool for a moment, feet swinging back and forth, before the hat shouted "Gryffindor." The table to the far right erupted in cheers. She went over to it and sat down.

And so the sorting when. Walter Anthony was sorted into Ravenclaw, Kelly Atkins into Hufflepuff, and Alicia Bagley to Ravenclaw.

"Black, Bellatrix"

James looked at Sirius and he mouthed "my cousin."

Bellatrix Black had long black hair, a pointy pale face, and a look of superiority. She sat down on the cheap wooden stool like it was a throne and placed the hat on her head like a throne. She didn't, however, have to keep the hat on her head for very long, for almost immediately after she touched the hat onto her head it shouted "Slytherin."

"Black, Sirius"

Sirius casually walked up and sat on the stool and jammed the hat onto his head. After sitting there for a while, the hat shouted "Gryffindor." He took the hat off and put it back on the stool. He ran to the cheering Gryffindors with a huge smile plastered on his face. In the audience, James watched as Snape and a boy named Rodolphus Lestrange exchanged glances, and Remus couldn't help but notice Bellatrix glaring at Sirius at he sat down at the Gryffindor table. After Thomas Dale and Francesca Dunn were sorted into Hufflepuff and Slytherin, respectively, Professor McGonagall called "Evans, Lily."

When nobody answered she tried again. "Evans, Lily."

Lily ran from the room crying, she had never been more embarrassed in her life. Although she had never been exactly popular, she had always avoided being the target of bullies. This year, it seemed that she became a target for both bullies and gossip when she wasn't doing anything to draw attention to herself.

She ran into the bathroom and stuck her head into the sink. She turned the faucet on and let the flames die out. In the process of running out of the bathroom and she ran straight into a seventh year girl named Molly Prewett. She knew she was a horrific sight with her scorched hair and teary eyes. Molly, being a seventh girl and head girl, was able to cut Lily's hair so there weren't any scorch showing, but it still looked alright.

"We better get you back to the feast before you miss the sorting." Molly said kindly.

"Thank you so much!" Lily exclaimed, she couldn't be more thankful for what Molly did for her.

"Don't mention it. What's your last name, sweetie?" Molly asked.

"Evans"

"Evans? Goodness we better run!"

They ran through the halls and to the sorting ceremony where Lily ran in just in time to hear Professor McGonagall call her name for the third time. "Evans, Lily."

"What do I do?" she asked Molly in a hushed tone.

"Just go up and put on the hat, it will tell you what house you're in." Molly replied in a whisper.

"Thanks!" Lily whispered back before shouting "HERE!" to Professor McGonagall to the rest of the hall.

As Lily ran up to the front of the hall, by where all the teachers were sitting, she could feel eyes following her and some giggles protruding from the people the eyes belonged to. Lily didn't really care anymore though. Potter and his friends could try and screw up her life as much as they wanted, but the one thing that she wouldn't let them screw up was her dignity.

She ran up to the front, jammed the hat onto her head and waited. After considering Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, the hat finally made it's decision. It shouted the word Gryffindor to the rest of the hall. And even though people weren't cheering as loudly for her as she would've liked, she couldn't help but smile.

The smile, however, quickly disappeared from her face when she saw Sirius Black sitting at the table. He waved at her and motioned for her to sit down by him. She, deciding that she had had enough of his type of practical jokes, decided to ignore his motion and sit somewhere else. She found Molly sitting with some of her friends at the other end of the table. Although Molly was a seventh year, she was nice, so Lily thought that she wouldn't mind if she sat by her.

When she saw Lily approaching, Molly eagerly moved over to make room for Lily. Although she was a little too old for Lily to consider her one of her friends, it felt good to know a student in the wizarding world that didn't hate her. Lily didn't talk much for the rest of the evening, she just ate. She was hungry and she didn't want to say anything to embarrass herself.

After the feast was ended, Molly led Lily and the rest of the Gryffindor first years their dormitories. As she followed Molly, Lily could feel every first year's eyes upon her. Some whispered, some giggled, but everybody was looking at her. She didn't know how she become so unpopular when she had barely uttered a word since she had arrived at Hogwarts.

She followed the four other girls up to her dormitory and sat down on her bed. Kaitlyn Holmes and Marlene McKinnon started laughing in a corner and she knew it was about her. She decided to ignore them and meet the other two girls in her dormitory. "Hi, I'm Lily! What are your guys' names?" She asked politely.

"I'm Casey Volley" said an African girl with cornrows in her hair.

"Rachel Anstruther." Said a pretty girl with auburn-brown hair and some freckles on her nose. "So what's it like to be hated by the two hottest guys in the year?"

I couldn't take it anymore; I took out my Charms textbook out of my backpack and went downstairs to the common room. I decided that maybe I would begin to learn the repairing charm tonight.

James waited impatiently for his turn to be sorted. Both of his friends had been sorted into Gryffindor, and he prayed to God that by the time they started eating, he would be sitting by them. For the first time, he was starting to get doubts of whether he would be sorted into Gryffindor. Three of the five boy's spots had been given up.

After Remus had been sorted and he had no one to talk to, he waited throughout _Mabel, Mayne, McKinnon, Mumph, Nott, O'Donnell, Parnell, and Patil. _Finally when James thought that it was his turn, Professor McGonagall called:

"Pettigrew, Peter."

A short, round boy with mousy brown went up to the front of the room (tripping twice on his way up) and tried the hat on. He sat on the stool a long while and James was growing impatient. 'Could the hat just put him in Hufflepuff?' he thought. The hat finally made it's decision, "Gryffindor." It shouted.

'Good God!' James thought. 'That oaf got into Gryffindor?' James couldn't help being cynical of the clumsy boy. 'If he can, anyone can. But with Peter Pettigrew, Thomas Hall, Sirius and Remus all in Gryffindor there's only one spot left. Damn it.' James' thoughts broke off, however, when he heard Professor McGonagall called his name.

James walked up to the front of the room put the hat on casually and sat down on the stool. James couldn't help but notice that the hat fit on his head perfectly. He didn't have to sit there for long, because almost exactly when the hat touched his head, it shouted "Gryffindor."

He got up and followed the eruption of cheers to the Gryffindor table. He slid in next to Sirius and ran his hand through his hair. Sirius gave him a high-five and said "Nice going mate, I knew you had it in you."

"Thanks!" James replied, not able to stop smiling, "you too!"

"Yea, yea. It's not that big of a deal—it's only a house anyways." Sirius said as if it was nothing.

"I think you damn well know you would be singing a different tune if you had been sorted into Slytherin." James said, knowing that his friend didn't want to uphold his family's tradition.

"Shut the hell up, a hottie's being sorted." Sirius said staring at a blond haired, blue-eyed, tan girl who was sitting on the stool with the hat on your head. "Please be Gryffindor, please be Gryffindor…" Sirius said under his breath. The hat however didn't oblige to Sirius' wish and placed the girl in Ravenclaw.

"Awww, well that's okay Sirius. Look at all the hottie's we have in our house." James said. "Look at Rachel Anstruther!" James stared at the Irish girl with auburn-brown hair and a nose dotted with freckles.

"Yeah, she's okay. But I myself prefer Kaitlyn Holmes." Sirius said.

"Sucker for blondes, are you Sirius?" James asked. "What about you Remus, who do you like?"

Remus was staring down the table, towards a girl with emerald-green eyes and red hair, but quickly looked back when James asked him a question. "Yeah he answered, Rachel and Kaitlyn are pretty." He said, before staring out into space.

"What's up with him?" Sirius laughed.

"I think you were right about him having the hots for a certain red-head." James whispered. "I caught him looking that way before he answered my question."

A/N: So here it is, the third chapter. Lily's life starts out pretty crappy, but she makes a friend in Molly Prewett, and her hair looks fine now. I hope that you're enjoying this fic so far!  If you read and review I would be really grateful. In the next chapter Lily will make another friend where she least expects it! That's all I'll say for now!  Keep reading and reviewing, and I'll keep writing!

Thanks to my latest reviewers:

**Ycantibreathe:** Thanks for your review!  On my word document whenever I did it programmed it to make a dotted line all across my paper. I thought that it was sort of cool so I left it there. However, much to my dismay, it didn't turn up when I posted it. So now I have undone the auto-adjustment and just left the . Also, thanks for your complements, and I'm sorry Lily's life seems bad right now. I just had to do something that would explain why she hated James so much. I decided that the reason she hated his pranks so much was because she had been a target.

**Jewels5**:I'm so sorry! I didn't realize that I was making everybody have to sign in when they reviewed my story. Oh well, I fixed that now, and hopefully that didn't stop too many people from reading and reviewing! Thanks for your compliment on my original ideas. Hopefully, they will piece together well as I write more of the story. I'm on chapter 6 right now, and I don't think I've ran over any speed bumps yet. If I make a mistake, let me know. I'd like to be able to fix it.

**Next Update**:Probably not for another couple of days. I am at a place where I can't get much internet access. Right now is an exception!  This weekend, I will focus on writing more right now! My goal is to be to chapter 12 by the end of the weekend. I'm not planning on making this book too long, mainly because it only covers their first two years at Hogwarts and I'm planning on writing three or four sequels. (Their 3rd 4th year, their 5th and 6th year, their 7th year, and possible one after that.)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Lily was sitting in a fluffy armchair by the fire when she saw a shadow draw up behind her. She looked up to see one of the three boys who had bullied her standing behind her. She put her head down, got up and left the chair. She stopped, however, when she heard the boy's voice calling her back.

"Come back! I have to tell you something!" the boy called.

"Tell me what?" she asked angrily, "That you're about to hex my nose so that it turn's into a hook?"

"No." he said simply. "I actually came here to apologize. I'm sorry for what my friends did. I also wanted to let you know that it wasn't anything you did that made them hex you. They just have fun in hexing random people whenever they feel like it."

"Why did they hex me then, if I didn't do anything?" she asked.

"They felt in the mood, they saw you walking by, you talked to them, and they thought that it was the opportune moment." Remus said.

"Well you can tell them that no time is the opportune moment to hex somebody!" Lily could feel tears building up in my eyes. "You can tell them that their 'harmless actions' consequently resulted in me having no friends at the start of the year. Everybody points and laugh at me. I hate it! You tell them thanks for making my life miserable!"

"I'm sorry that they made your first day here miserable," Remus said sympathetically, "but it you want, I'll be your friend."

"Thanks." Lily said. She didn't' quite know why, but she hugged him before she went to bed. As she climbed the stairs to the girl's dormitory, she couldn't help but smile—she had a friend.

"Guess what Remus?" Sirius yelled as Remus walked into the dormitory.

"What?" Remus asked.

"No, you've gotta guess." Sirius said.

"I don't care that much. I think I'll go to bed." Remus said, pulling the curtains around his bed shut. Suddenly, the curtains were drawn open again. Remus opened his eyes and looked around to see who had opened them. No one was in the dormitory. Funny, Remus could've have sworn that he hadn't heard Sirius leave the room. He shrugged sleepily and pulled the curtains shut again. As Remus was just about to fall asleep, he heard the curtains open yet again. "What the hell?" he muttered as he looked around the room, yet again seeing no one.

He heard footsteps coming up towards the room and James burst in. "Sirius?" James called. "Oh, hey Remus. I was wondering where you were."

"Oh, yeah…Sorry I sort of left, I was asking Professor McGonagall when our schedules would be handed out." Remus lied quickly. He didn't want his friends to know that he had befriended Lily, in fear that he would be teased about his crush.

"Okay." James said. "Have you seen Sirrr…." James started as a pie came flying at his face.

"What the…" Remus said.

"Sirius, take off my invisibility cloak." James said, taking a swing at the air where the pie had come. James and Remus were quiet long enough to hear a faint laughter coming from under the Pettigrew kid's bed. They made eye contact before getting on either side of the bed, to ensure that he had no means of escape, and pulling Sirius out from under it. Sirius finally took the cloak off and burst out laughing.

"Remus…the curtains…oh my God…hilarious…" he laughed "James…the pie…damn…brilliant…"

"Stop being so damn cocky and tell us where the hell you got a pie?" James asked, annoyed.

"…Dinner…nicked it…" Sirius was still laughing.

"Have you been hit by a damn cheering charm or something?" James asked, "Get up off your ass, we got to go!" James pulled the cloak over them and the disappeared from Remus' view.

"Where are guys going?" Remus asked.

"See what the school looks like at night." James said. "Wanna come?"

"Are you crazy?" Remus asked. "Of course I do!"

James took the invisibility cloak off himself and Sirius and threw it over the three of them. They disappeared from view and set out on there first adventure of the year.

Lily woke up early the next morning on account for how excited she was about the upcoming day. For although her first day hadn't been the best, today she started classes and she was excited to see her schedule. Today she decided, she would not be conspicuous in the least. She got up, put on her school robes, and pulled her hair back in a high ponytail.

After leaving her sleeping roommates in their dormitory, she went downstairs to the Great Hall for breakfast. The room didn't look nearly as festive as it had the previous night. True, the enchanted ceiling was still there, but the rest of the decorations weren't there. Also, there weren't students around, laughing and talking. In fact, there was only one other person in the hall, apart from herself.

Lily thought that she remembered the girl from the sorting last night. She was tall and skinny with long blonde hair and a big nose. Lily decided to talk to her. "Hi! I'm Lily…"

"…Evans, I know." The girl interrupted. "I'm Emmeline Vance, but you can call me Emmie."

"Oh. I guess everyone knows…" Lily said, disappointed that this girl remembered her as 'the girl who got her hair lit on fire by the three hottest guys in the first year.'

"You say that like it's a bad thing." Emmie said. "I would kill for people to notice me."

"Trust me it's not that great for people to remember you as the girl who got her hair lit on fire." Lily said sadly.

"I'm sorry…" Emmie apologized. "Do you wanna sit down? The food's great!"

"Yeah, 'cause I was too embarrassed by getting my hair lit on fire to notice how good the food was last night!" Lily said.

Emmie laughed, "You're funny Lily! C'mon, sit down!"

"Am I allowed to sit down at the Ravenclaw table?"

"Who's here to stop you?" Emmie said, looking around.

Lily looked around too, "Alright then!"

She sat down and the girls ate in silence for a while until they felt someone approaching them from behind.

"Good morning girls." Said the voice of Professor McGonagall.

"Hi Professor!" The girls said in unison.

"I have your course schedules for the year." She said simply. "You're in Gryffindor, right?" she asked, gesturing towards Lily.

"Yes." Lily said politely.

"Here you go then." She said, handing each of them a different schedule.

Lily examined hers:

Monday

8:00: Breakfast

9:00: Charms

12:00: Lunch

1:30: History of Magic

3:00: Defense Against the Dark Arts

4:30: Transfiguration

6:00: Dinner

7:30 Study

8:00 Must be in Common Rooms

Tuesday

8:00: Breakfast

9:00: Flying (starts 11/1)

10:30: History of Magic

12:00: Lunch

1:30: Potions

4:30: Charms

6:00 Dinner

7:30 Study

8:00 Common Room

12:00 Astronomy

Wednesday

8:00: Breakfast

9:00: Transfiguration

12:00: Lunch

1:30: Potions

3:00: Charms

4:30: Defense Against the Dark Arts

6:00: Dinner

7:30: Study

8:00 Common Room

Thursday

8:00: Breakfast

9:00: Herbology

10:30: Flying (starts 11/1)

12:00: Lunch

1:30: Defense Against the Dark Arts

4:30: Charms

6:00: Dinner

7:30: Study

8:00: Common Room

Friday:

8:00: Breakfast

9:00: Potions

10:30: Herbology

12:00: Lunch

1:30: Free Time

6:00: Dinner

7:30: Free Time

9:30: Common Room

Saturday:

9:00: Breakfast

10:30: Free Time

12:00: Lunch

1:30: Free Time

6:00 Dinner

7:30: Free Time

9:30: Common Room

Sunday:

9:00 Breakfast

10:30: Free Time

12:00: Lunch

1:30: Free Time

6:00: Dinner

7:30: Free Time

8:00: Common Room

"What does your schedule look like for today?" Emmie asked.

"Erm…Double Charms, History of Magic, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Transfiguration. What about you?" Lily replied.

"Double Transfiguration, History of Magic, Potions, and Charms." Emmie said. "We have a class together, that's cool!"

"Yup!" Lily replied happily. It seemed that she had made another friend.

"ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!" The screams of two first year boys could've been heard in the next town over.

James woke up with a start when he felt a bucket-full of water dumped on top of his head.

"Finally," Remus said, "I've been trying to wake you two up for about an hour now."

"Bloody hell! What was that for Remus?" James asked sleepily.

"'What was that for Remus?' You should be thanking me!" Remus said exasperatedly. "Here I am spending an hour trying to make sure you guys aren't late on our first day, and all you have to say is 'What was that for Remus?'"

"Did you have to wake us up _that _way?" James asked. "Couldn't you just have prodded us awake or something?"

"Tried"

"Okay fine, hit us?"

"Tried"

"Hit us with a pillow?"

"Tried"

"Kicked us?"

"Tried"

"Jabbed us with a broomstick?"

"My wand."

"Couldn't you at least of strayed away from dumping water on us?"

"What would you suggest I do? I've tried everything else! You two bloody bastards just don't wake up!" Remus said. "See, this ass has already fallen back asleep." He said, gesturing towards Sirius.

"Go get another pail," James suggested.

"Can I trust leaving you alone in here, or will you fall back asleep?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"I'm up!" James said. "Once I'm awake I can never fall back asleep!"

But sure enough, when Remus returned with the bucket of water, both Sirius and James were asleep in bed.

A/N: How did you like that part at the end? That was one of my favorite parts to write, seeing as I have used the line "once I wake up, I can't get back to sleep" many times in the past!  Next chapter will be their first classes! You can bet that Lily will kick ass in charms!  Please read and review. I love to hear both what you like and what you don't like. Even if you just want to say something like "update soon", I'd appreciate it!

PS: Sorry this chapter wasn't that long, I was on page 5, and I'm like "okay, I'll wrap it up." But then, when I was just editing it, I realized that about of page of it was taken up by their schedules. (Although the schedules did take a heck of a long time to do—I did all four houses and I had to make sure that nothing was overlapping!)

**Black Heart: **Thanks for your review! The rest is coming: I've written up to chapter 9, my goal was to finish through chapter 12, but, oh well!

**Princessavg: **Thanks! Please to continue to read and review!

**Ycantibreathe: **Did Lily's life get good enough for you in this chapter? She made friends with both Remus and Emmie! I wonder why you thought it was funny what they did to Snape, but sad what they did to Lily. When you really think about it, they knew just as much about Snape as they did Lily. Both times they did it for fun, they weren't provoked.

**Jewels5: **Thank you for your compliments. No, Lily's life will not continue in this depressing trend. I just needed to have something happen to her that would ensure that she and James got off to the wrong start.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

"Oh shit!" James yelled as looked at the clock.

"What?" asked Sirius, clearly startled.

"It's 9:15!" James said pulling his pants on inside out. "We're hell a late!"

"Damn it, and on our first day too. Why didn't Remus wake us?" He asked, outraged.

"Dunno, we'll get him back for it though. But for right now lets worry about getting to our first class on time. What time does it start again?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know? We were supposed to get our schedules at breakfast." Sirius said.

"Okay, let's go down to the Great Hall then." James said.

"Why were gonna be late either way, why don't we just go to class?" Sirius asked.

"Because we don't know what class we have moron." James said.

"True…" Sirius said. "Let's go faster, we don't want to be too late."

"Too late for that. But let's run faster anyways! Race ya!" James said, sprinting off towards the Great Hall.

"Okay then, but you'll be sorry!" Sirius yelled, sprinting off after him.

The boys sprinted off towards the Great Hall, James still in the lead but Sirius not far behind. James was about to enter the Great Hall when he looked back at Sirius and smirked. He was going to win, or at least he thought he was until he ran right into Professor McGonagall, and Sirius entered the Great Hall in front of him.

"Sorry Professor!" he exclaimed, apologetically.

"That's quite alright Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said, turning and walking away.

"That was bloody close!" James said. "Thank God she didn't ask us why we weren't in class!"

"Yeah," Sirius agreed. "Now all we have to do is find some schedu… …bloody hell!" Sirius said, looking towards the doors of the Great Hall.

"What?" James asked, turning around to see Professor McGonagall walking through the doors with a stern look on her face. "Oh…"

"What," Professor McGonagall started, steam seeming to come out through her nostrils, "May I ask are you boys doing skipping class, ON YOUR FIRST DAY!"

"Slept in…" Sirius said looking up at her innocently.

"We need our schedules, we accidentally slept through breakfast." James said. "It WON'T happen again" he added quickly.

"No that it won't, Mr. Potter" Professor McGonagall thought for a second. "Yes. You along with Mr. Black will receive a detention along with your schedule. Now, I believe you have a double block of charms first. Now hurry along to it before you're later than you already are. You will receive your schedules along with your detentions at lunch today."

Sirius and James didn't reply, they just left the Great Hall and headed towards the charms classroom. They found a 5th year prefect and asked for directions. James did all the talking while Sirius just stood their staring at her. When they came to a fork they stopped. "Which way's west?" James asked.

"Dunno, why?" Sirius asked.

"Because the prefect said that the charms classroom was on the 13th floor, in the west wing!" James said indignantly.

"Oh…" Sirius said, a look of comprehension dawning on his face. "I thought she said if you were 13 we could have a fling…"

"C'mon! She's 15 and she's gorgeous. She could have any 7th year she wanted. Why would she like you?" James asked

"Cause I'm hot…" Sirius said, still in his own world.

"Someone's cocky," James said. "Now c'mon, we gotta get to class before we miss it entirely."

"Doesn't sound half bad, actually." Sirius said.

"Damn it" James said, getting annoyed. "I just need to know which ways west!"

"I already told you, I don't know!"

"How are we supposed to get to class then?"

"Hell if I know! Let's just sit here."

"C'mon, don't ya wanna give Remus a good kick in the ass for not waking us up when we get there?"

"Let's go then!" Sirius said, taking the left path.

"Wait! How do you know that that goes west?" James asked.

"Because on maps, west is always to the left." Sirius said simply.

"That's assuming that that way is north!" James said, pointing out the window to their right.

"Oh…" Sirius said. "But does it really matter? I don't know which way's west, you don't know which way's west, and by just sitting there, we're never gonna figure it out. Best we can do is guess!"

"You're right…" James said, "and a genius!" He said looking at a door on his left.

"A classroom!" Sirius said. He went over and opened the door. However, by the look of things, it wasn't the charms classroom. In fact, he didn't know what class it was for, because at the precise moment he opened the door, a dragon came protruding out of the closet. Both boys stood there looking at it for a second before the teacher walked around the students and closed the door.

"There you guys are!" said a tan, short girl with a high-pitched voice and a pretty face. "I've been wondering where you were all morning."

"You were?" Sirius asked as James ran his hands through his hair.

"Yeah, well. Evans has been showing off all morning. Been hoping somebody would hex her." The girl said. "I'm Marlene McKinnon, by the way."

"Sirius Black"

"James Potter"

"I know." Marlene said. "You guys better get to class."

"Where is it?" James asked.

"Go down this hall for a while, it'll be the third classroom on the right!"

"Thanks." Sirius muttered. "HA! Told you this way was west!" He said to James.

"You didn't know! Now get your sorry ass to Charms." James said.

"You not coming?" Sirius asked.

"No, I think I'm just gonna sit here and stare at my hands." James said sarcastically. "Of course I'm coming!"

With that they walked through the doors and into the Charms classroom.

So far Lily's day had gone pretty well. She liked all of her classes except for History of Magic where she could barely stay awake. She listened to Professor Binns drown on and on for the entire hour and a half of class. He was going to die soon, she knew it. She had History of Magic with Emmie, so they made a deal, she would take half of the notes and Emmie would take half of the notes.

She could barely stay awake enough to finish them. But she persisted for Emmie's sake, and did not close her eyes once. It seemed to help Lily that she was taking the notes for someone else rather than just herself. She wasn't only jeopardizing her grades, but she was jeopardizing Emmie's as well. She would feel horrible if Emmie failed because of her.

Throughout the entire first half of class, all Professor Binns talked about was how Hogwarts started. He spent forty-five minutes telling a story that could have been told in ten. This was not only a waste of time, but made it incredibly boring for the students. He described every detail of everything, including the earrings that Rowena Ravenclaw was wearing on the first day that Hogwarts opened.

"How would you know?" James Potter asked when Professor Binns made this comment. "Where you there?"

"Old enough to be." Sirius said. The two boys laughed along with the rest of the class and gave each other high fives.

Lily was surprised that they were even paying attention. For not five minutes ago she had looked over at there desk and they had seemed to be sound asleep. 'Oh well…' she thought, and she continued on with her notes.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was better, although still not that fun. Professor Agrippa spent the entire class period going over the syllabus and trying to learn their names, with no help from Black and Potter. At the beginning of class she told the class that she was no good at names.

When she said this, Lily looked over to see the two troublemakers exchange smirks. The first time that she asked for their names Black called himself James and Potter called himself Sirius. However, went she went back and tried to remember their names, Potter and Black both kept their names. Their plan worked, Professor Agrippa was so confused that the only person's name she could remember was Marlene McKinnon's. Although Lily didn't care much for the two troublemakers, she had to admit that they were funny.

Lily enjoyed Transfiguration, but not as much as she would've if Potter wasn't in the classroom. Although she would never admit it, Lily liked to be the best at things, and it annoyed her that Potter, who seemed to never study, was able to transfigure his match into a very sharp needle on the first try. Lily, however, didn't get he needle transfigured into a needle until her 3rd try, and, even then, her needle wasn't as sharp as Potter's first one.

Charms, however, was Lily's favorite class. In that she was better than Potter and everyone else. She was the first one to master the levitating charm, and was able to smirk at Marlene and Kaitlyn. Also, she didn't have to worry about Potter and Black, for the first half of the class at least. Then came running in late half way through the class. Although they said that they had already been punished by McGonagall, Flitwick decided to take five points away from each of them

The boys didn't seem embarrassed in the slightest, at getting points taken away from them. Lily was angry about this. They had just lost the points she had won for being the first in the class to perform the "wingardeoum leviosa" charm correctly. She hated arrogant little boys who cared for no one but themselves. They thought they were above classes, that's why they didn't bother waking up for class this morning.

"What do we have next?" James asked.

"Dinner!" Sirius exclaimed happily.

"Funny. Every other time James asked that question you didn't know what the next class was." Remus said.

"Yeah well, I only remember the important ones." Sirius said. "I'm starving!"

"You're still hungry after eating a whole chicken and half a pie at lunch?" Remus asked, astonished.

"That was six hours ago!" Sirius said, indignantly.

"And my mother thinks I eat a lot. When you come over this summer, we're really gonna stock up our refrige…" James started.

"…What's that?" Remus interrupted, pointing to a single golden feather sitting in the corner of the room with a note.

"Let's go read it!" James said, motioning for Remus and Sirius to follow him.

The three boys walked to the corner of the room, but were soon cut off by Professor McGonagall. "Excuse me." She said curtly as she bent down and picked up the paper. Sirius, James and Remus stared at her as she read the letter, her look of concern strengthening as she read on.

"What was that about, professor?" James asked when she finished.

"I think that that is none of your business, that you boys have gotten yourselves in enough trouble for one day, and that you should head off to dinner." Professor McGonagall said curtly, before walking off and entering a door about ten paces to their right.

"What are we waiting for?" Sirius asked before heading towards the door.

"Wait!" Remus said grabbing his shoulder and bringing him back. "Do you really think we should be doing this?" he asked.

"Why not?" Sirius asked. "I wanna see what's got McGonagall so down."

"What about dinner?" Remus asked. "I thought you were starving!"

"This is more important." Sirius said before turning in the opposite direction and heading towards the door.

"Wow! He must find this really important, if he's willing to give up dinner for it!" James whispered to Remus, and they both burst out laughing before following Sirius to the door.

"Damn it! It's locked." He said when they got there.

"Stand back," James said to Sirius, annoyed. "Aloha Mora!" James said, pointed his wand at the door. He tried to open the door, but it still didn't work.

"Get back, the both of you!" Remus said exasperatedly. "Aloha Mora!" He said flicking his wand at the door. The door then magically opened for them.

"How come it worked for you but not for me?" James asked.

"Swish and flick!" Remus said, showing him with his hands. When James still looked confused he said, "I'll show you later" before sprinting down the hall after Sirius.

Sirius stopped behind the picture of a lion with the head of a woman that was blocking them from going any further. "I bet McGonagall told this sphinx thing a password and entered a room from behind it. Sort of like the fat lady." Sirius stated.

"No, really?" James asked sarcastically.

Sirius sneered at James before turning back to the sphinx and asking "How can we get past you?"

"You must first answer a riddle." The sphinx said simply. "If you answer correctly, you may pass. If you don't, you will disappear from the face of this earth completely."

"Okay then, let's hear it." Sirius said, as James and Remus exchanged uneasy glances.

"This riddle I made especially for you,

For this riddle I'll give you three clues:

One that…"

With that sphinx was cut off as the portrait was swung open. The boys were faced by none other than the headmaster himself. Professor Dumbledore looked around at the three boys. "Whatever are you boys doing down here?" he asked. "How did you get in?" Although his voice sounded strict and worried, there was a twinkle in his eyes which gave him an amused look.

"The door was opened and so we wanted to see what was in here. Sirius came up and questioned the sphinx and she told him that he could get by if answered a riddle. He decided that there was no harm in trying, so he tried." James lied quickly.

"The door was open? I could've sworn that Minerva said that she had shut and locked it." Dumbledore eyed James questioningly.

"Well it was open when we came through." James said defiantly.

"I believe you Mr. Potter. But I suggest that you go of to dinner and not come down this hallway again." Dumbledore said.

"Yes, professor." James agreed before heading off to dinner with Remus and Sirius not far behind him.

"Have you had Transfiguration yet today?" Lily asked Emmie as they sat down for dinner.

"Yeah, had a double block, first." Emmie said.

"Ooo, double McGonagall, that's gotta suck" Lily said sympathetically.

"Don't feel too badly, you'll have it later this week."

"Anyways have you perfected transfiguring your match into a needle yet?"

"No mine's still made out of wood. What about you?"

"My looks like a needle, but you couldn't sew it through anything, it's too dull."

"Don't worry; I don't think anyone's was perfect."

"James Potter's was." Lily said huffily. "And he's so lazy, he'd probably never practiced it before."

"I hate people who are like that. They always do really well, but they never do any work." Emmie said. "Its annoying for all of us who actually have to study to get good grades."

"Yeah. It's not only that though, he's so annoying that he…" Lily started when she saw Potter and his friends walking through the door. "Speak of the devil."

James, Remus and Sirius sat down and started talking in hushed voices.

"I wonder what that was about," James said. "I've never seen Dumbledore so serious before."

"He didn't look serious." Sirius said, referring to the twinkle in his eyes.

"Yeah but he sure sounded it." Remus said. "Listen you guys, I think that we should stay away from that passageway from now on."

"And not figure out what's going on?" James asked indignantly. "No way."

"But seriously…" Remus began.

Sirius then interrupted him. "Listen Remus, if you're too scared to go back there, that's fine, but as for James and me, we're going back."

"But Black, Remus is right, someone could get hurt." Emmie said, interrupting Remus who was about to speak.

"Who are you?" Sirius asked.

"Emmeline Vance, I'm a 1st year Ravenclaw and a friend of Lily's." Emmie said.

"Evans, take your Ravenclaw friend back to her own table. And on the way discuss with her the importance of minding your own business." Sirius said.

"I will do no such thing, Black." Lily began. "I invited her here and she wasn't eavesdropping, she just accidentally overheard, as did anyone else sitting within a mile of you guys."

"Firstly, Vance, I say you're uninvited. Does anyone second that?" Sirius asked. James raised his hand and Lily glared at him. "Secondly, Remus, why does your voice have to be so damn loud?"

Black you think that you're so popular that you can control anyone you feel like bossing around." Lily started. "Well, guess what? Here's one person you can't boss around! And if the rest of you," she said gesturing towards the rest of the table, "have half a brain, you wouldn't listen to him either." Lily knew that she was drawing attention to herself, but she didn't care. At that moment, Lily wanted everyone to notice her and to know that she wouldn't let Sirius Black boss her around.

A/N: Yeah this chapter's a little longer…I just felt like writing and writing! How did you like that? Lily finally stood up for herself! Also Sirius, Remus and James found their first clue…God! I've said too much already!  Please Review. I have the next chapter done, what I won't update until I have at least a couple more reviews! Thanks!

Sorry it's been so long, I was sorta hoping to get a couple more reviews but…I really hope that you review this next chapter. If you've written any fics before, you'll know how much. Could you please review? Whether you want to tell me how crappy my book is, that's fine. Or even if you don't have anything to say at all, I love everything you guys write! If you have any questions or comments, I will definitely answer them (as long as they don't give too much away!) So PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE review!

**Ycantibreathe: **Thank you for being my one and only reviewer. Yea, sorry it was a little shorter…I didn't really realize how long I was making it—I tried to make this one a little longer for you! I'm glad that you liked the part at the end—I had a lot of fun writing it and I'm glad to see that the readers enjoyed it. Yeah, I felt that I needed to give Lily some friends. I decided that she should be friends with Remus for two reasons. 1) Because I needed there to be a link between Lily and James throughout the first book. 2) Because I was reading an idea for a fic, and it said to have a Lily/James story where there was a friendship between Lily and Remus. At that point I was already brainstorming ideas for this story. I thought that would be a good way to do it. I didn't want to write a story about two people that went to the same school that had nothing to do with each other throughout the entire first book—even though they would end up marrying each other later on in life!  Thanks again for your review!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

The next morning, Remus didn't even bother trying to wake Sirius and James up. Instead, he offered his owl, Quipper, five owl treats if he would nip at them until they woke up. He knew that they would be angry with him, but at least they wouldn't be late for class again. He was just about to get started on a new project when he saw two boys coming towards him.

"Bloody hell, Remus!" Sirius said exasperatedly.

"Look at what your God damn owl did to me!" James yelled, showing him cuts all over his ears, neck, face and hands.

Remus chose to ignore these comments. He looked up at them as if they hadn't said anything, "I see you two won't be late today!" he said

"Because of your bloody owl!" Sirius claimed.

"Then I suppose you have my bloody owl to thank, if he is the reason that you don't get a detention and points taken away from you for being late to class." Remus said, choosing his words carefully. He then went on to start filling out a form for something or another.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" Sirius asked.

"Filling out a form for the Daily Profit." Remus said.

"Why?" James asked.

"Have you not heard?" Remus asked, surprised. "Wait, I forgot, you guys haven't been down to breakfast yet."

"You've already eaten breakfast?" Sirius asked.

"Yeah. You know, the day seems so much longer when you wake up an hour earlier." Remus asked.

"Who told you that?" James snorted, disbelievingly.

"Lily. She wakes up at 6:30 almost every morning." Remus said, simply.

"Since when do you talk to Evans?" Sirius asked.

"Where did you get the impression that I didn't?" Remus asked.

"I dunno. You just always seemed to side with us when we cursed her or got in fights with her." Sirius said stately.

"I try not to take sides during those fights. However at the beginning of the year, when you guys hexed her hair, I felt badly towards her." Remus said.

Sirius was about to defend James, when James himself spoke up. "So, what happened at breakfast?"

"Nothing happened at breakfast, actually it happened a few weeks ago, but it was just published in the profit this morning." Remus told. "It's a reporting on many random deaths, mostly of muggles and muggle-born witches and wizards."

"How do they know that these deaths aren't just random? Why are these deaths any different than the many deaths of people each day? How do we know that they are lin…" James began.

"Shut up already and let me finish." Remus said. "They know that the deaths are all linked because every time that somebody dies, a green skull his found behind them. I think that that's what the teachers were talking about yesterday. They, or at least McGonagall and Dumbledore, must have somehow been informed before the rest of England…"

"That means," said James, catching on, "that the teachers probably have more information now than we do. And, that that secret place we found, is probably where they talk about it. We have to go back there again."

"No we don't. The paper will tell us everything that we need to know. That is why I am purchasing one now, that way we will know everything that we need to." Remus said.

"But James just said that the teachers probably know things that the paper won't tell us! We need to know everything. I think that we should go back." Sirius said.

"We don't have to know everything. The Ministry will decide what the public needs to know, and they will tell us just that." Remus said.

"I don't care what you think, Remus, Sirius and I are going back there tonight. You're either coming or your not, but you can't stop us." James said before turning around and trudging up the stairs.

"Is he going to forget about breakfast?" Sirius asked, confused.

Lily had been out in the Library working on her 62 cm Defense Against the Dark Arts essay that was due on Friday. She was almost finished when she looked at the time. It was already 7:54 and she had to be back to the common room by 8. She would have worked in the common room with all the other first years, but she had tried that last night and it didn't work out to well. She didn't get a thing done with Sirius and James throwing spit-wads at her and Marlene, Rachel and Kaitlyn giggling at the scene.

She would have to run up to the common room to make it by curfew. She ran out of the library, up two staircases onto the fourth floor I was passing a doorway to a classroom that she had never been in before, and ran right into something invisible, but solid. Lily looked around, trying to figure out what she'd hit.

"Who's there?" she asked nervously. She heard a faint "oh shit!" and footsteps leaving the scene. "Peeves?" she said timidly. She didn't know why she'd said it, if it was Peeves, she'd be pranked and go back to the Common Room wet or worse. If it wasn't Peeves, nothing would happen and she would leave.

Lily just stood there for a while, looking around. Until she felt collide with her head. She put her hand up to her right side of her face. Whatever that stupid poltergeist had thrown hat her, it was sticky. Before she could do anything else, she felt another one hitting her. She started running towards the common room, but stopped when she heard laughing. Only it wasn't the usual crackle of Peeves, it was a familiar laugh that sounded like two boys around her age.

She turned around and she could feel her pale skin turning red. "POTTER!"

"Wow Evans!" Came the voice of James from behind her "Your face can get as red as your hair."

"Don't you dare light it on fire!" Lily screamed turning around and trying to slap Potter, swinging her hand in the direction of his voice.

"No, not a bad idea though Evans." His voice now coming from her right. "I like the way your mind works."

"That's surprising!" Lily scoffed. "I didn't think that you liked anything about me." Running to her right.

"It surprises me too; I thought the same way you did up until a few seconds ago." James said from behind me. "Well, I suppose that I've always liked the fact that you were good for a laugh."

Lily suddenly had an idea. Instead of running behind her, Lily ran into the left and right into Potter and his friends. She found some material and pulled on it, but boys resisted. They didn't want Lily to see them, but they didn't want her to rip the material either. They finally gave in.

When Lily finally got the cloak, she was surprised to see the boys materialize. "What the hell is this?" She asked them.

"Invisibility cloak" James said shrugging.

"Where did you get it? According to our History of Magic book they were invented in 1254 by Merlin. He only made fifty, and ever since then they haven't been able to make another one."

"You read too much." Sirius interjected

"Dunno, my dad gave it to me," James said. "Says I'll give it to my son someday."

Lily snorted she couldn't imagine anyone marrying James, let alone bearing him a son. Who would even go out with that pompous git? Well, Marlene or Kaitlyn maybe, but nobody else.

"What are you doing out this late I night?" Lily pressed.

"We should be asking you the same question." Sirius said.

"I was in the Library finishing my Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. I lost track of time. I don't suppose you were doing the same?" She asked them.

"As a matter a fact we were. Only we weren't in the Library." James said.

"Obviously." Lily said. "Working on your essays were you? Where's your stuff? And did you plan on losing track of time or do you just bring your invisibility cloak with you everywhere." Raising her eyebrows.

"Fine you caught us." Sirius said. "Now run on off to bed before you get yourself caught."

"You're coming too, right?"

"Why? Want an escort?"

"No, I just think that it would be wise to go back to bed, lest it might accidentally slip out in Transfiguration tomorrow that you were out after hours."

"Well, number one, I believe it is after eight o'clock." James said checking his watch, "Which means that you are out after hours too. And, number two, what proof you got?"

"Evans is so freaking annoying." James said.

"Yeah." Sirius said. "But don't worry about her, I don't think she'll rat out on us. You told her off pretty nicely, mate."

"Yeah, I guess I did." James said. "It was sort of fun you know."

"And she said she'd never let anyone else boss her around.!" Sirius laughed.

"Not that she had any choice." James added. "Besides, she didn't say she wouldn't let anyone else boss her around, she said she wouldn't let you boss her around."

"Oh, well…" Sirius didn't know what to say.

"C'mon, lets go break that lock!" James said excitedly.

He and Sirius walked through the hallway and to the place where they had first bumped into Lily. From there, they walked ten paces to their right and to the door. Sirius tried first. "Aloha Mora!" He exclaimed, pointing his wand at the door. He then tried to open it and nothing happened.

"Stand back." James said exasperatedly. "Remus taught me how to do this during lunch."

"Where was I?" Sirius asked.

"Eating." James said, as if he were stating the obvious. "Anyways we practiced on some doors that Remus locked for me, and they all worked." Sirius then moved to give James a clear shot of the door. Using the swish and flick method, James chanted "Aloha Mora!" The door did not fly open as it had for Remus the previous day. He tried to open it manually and it wouldn't budge. "That's weird." James said. "It worked for me when I tried at lunch time."

"That's alright, let's just go wake up Remus."

"You heard him at lunch, he won't go with us."

"Do you really think we're going to give him a choice?" Sirius asked, a mischievous twinkle appearing in his eye.

"Alright then." James said, smiling slyly at Sirius. Sirius winked at him.

The two boys ran all the way up to the eighth floor, across the castle to the most southeastern part. The muttered the password "Frog Spawn" to the Fat Lady and entered Gryffindor tower. When they got inside Sirius and James sprinted, invisibility cloak hid under James' cloak, up to the next floor where the first year boys were.

"Remus wake up!" James whispered urgently.

"Hmmm…" Remus stirred. "What is it James?"

"C'mon you've gotta come now! We have to show you something!" Sirius said, as if it were a life or death situation.

"Fine, I'll come. But this better be good." He said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

Sirius and James practically dragged Remus out the door, down the stairs, through the common room, and out the portrait hole. As James threw the invisibility cloak over them they heard a voice. "Just where do you think you boys are going?" The voice was that of a woman and the three boys, alarmed, spun around to try to find who had spoken to them. If it was a teacher, they were dead where they stood, especially if it was McGonagall. If it was a prefect, however, they could probably get out of it. No one was there, though.

"Out a little late, aren't we?" James spun around to see the fat lady staring at the place where they had disappeared.

"S-s-sorry" James stuttered. He had never heard the fat lady utter a word besides "password" before and it felt weird to be talking to her now.

"Excuse me…erm…" Sirius began.

"Elizabeth" the fat lady interjected.

"Elizabeth" Sirius filled in. "But have you ever heard a life or death situation?

"Yes, I believe I have."

"Than you'll understand that we have to leave the common room after hours tonight." Sirius said.

"It's quite alright, you don't need to lie to me. Just last night I caught Molly Prewett out at one o'clock in the morning."

"The head girl was out at one o'clock in the morning?" Remus asked, finally starting to wake up.

"Yes, I do believe she was. And she had no excuse, just as you don't."

"Well we better be going. Thank you!" James called as he turned the three of them around and headed toward the fourth floor, where the door was.

"So what is it that was so important?" Remus asked.

"We can't unlock the door." Sirius said gesturing towards it.

"WHAT?" Remus asked, outraged. "I thought you had something important to show me. I'm not opening that lock for you."

"Yes you are." James said, pointing his wand under Remus' chin.

"Fine, I will this time, but NEVER again!" Remus obliged.

"Thanks mate!" James said, putting his wand down.

Remus shrugged turned to the door and said "Aloha Mora!" Nothing happened. "Funny worked, yesterday" he said. "We should probably get back to the common room. Dumbledore probably charmed it so that charm wouldn't work after we got in there yesterday.

"We can't give up yet" James said determinedly, "We have to think of another idea." The three boys sat there for a minute, wracking their brains for ideas. Well, James and Sirius were wracking their brains for ideas; Remus was just sitting their, waiting for them to give up.

"I've got it!" Sirius said finally.

"You do?" James asked, excited.

"Oh God!" Remus said, rolling his eyes.

"No, seriously guys, I used to do this to spy on my parents all the time. A ceiling has two layers right?"

"I dunno." James said.

"Well it does. It has the floor of the room above it and the ceiling of itself. There's some space in between. So I say we cut a trapdoor above it and climb into the space in between."

"That sounds great!" James said.

"There's about 100 problems." Remus interjected.

"Name one." Sirius challenged him.

"I can name two without thinking about it." Remus said "For one thing, we don't know where exactly the secret room is, there could be a thousand more barriers in back of the sphinx picture before you get to this secret room or whatever. It would be almost impossible to find the place directly above it."

"We'll just have to guess." James suggested.

"Secondly, don't you think people are going to notice if we cut a hole in the floor?" Remus asked.

"That's why were going to put the trapdoor in a place where it won't be noticed." Sirius said.

"It's still not going to work" Remus said.

"Well, it's the best plan we have, so we're going to have to try." James said.

"If it's the best bet we have, we're screwed." Remus said

"Well we're going to try it, you're either with us or you're walking up to the Common Room without James' invisibility cloak, Remus." Sirius said.

"Are you kidding? Of course I'll come. I wouldn't let you two idiots try something like this by yourselves. I just thought I'd try to talk you out of it first." Remus said.

"C'mon then!" James said, motioning for Remus to get under the cloak. Remus got under and together the three boys upstairs.

When upstairs, James estimated a spot where he thought would be directly above the secret room. Sirius cut a square piece out—small, but big enough for the boy's skinny forms to fit through. James when through when he landed on the ceiling of the next floor, he could feel it cracking, but thought nothing of it. As he crawled a few paces, the cracking became louder and all of a sounded he fell through it and onto the hard, stone floor of the hallway.

"Oh damn!" Sirius said, and Remus gave him a look that quite plainly said 'I told you this was a bad idea.'

"Thanks for asking if I was okay!" James whispered up at them.

"Are you okay?" Remus asked in a hushed tone.

"I'm fine, now get your asses down here so we can try and get in!" James said.

"You're seriously telling me that you plan to go on?" Remus asked.

"Of course!" Sirius exclaimed. "You don't expect us to give up right when we've gotten somewhere."

"Gotten somewhere?" asked Remus. "Are you kidding? The only thing we've gotten is a hole in the ceiling."

"Way to be optimistic Remus. C'mon guys, just come through. I can fix this with a simple repairing charm." James said. Remus and Sirius jumped through and landed on the cement. James then took out his wand and looked up at the hole in the ceiling. He pointed his wand at it and said "Repairo!" The pieces that had fallen flew up from the ground and were roughly placed back in their spots. Although there was no more debris, it was still obvious that something had happened there.

"Wherever did you learn that charm?" Remus asked, exasperatedly. "Cause I'd like to murder the person who taught you to do it so sloppily."

"Dunno." James shrugged. "This was my first time trying it. Saw Evans practicing it in the Common Room the other day."

"Well that's a good way to learn a charm. Watching somebody else, without even learning the theory." Remus said.

"Blah. Who needs theory? Practice makes perfect—that's what I always say!" James said.

"Practice?" Remus asked. "Since when have you practice?"

"Erm…dunno." James froze as the sphinx's portrait creaked open. "Quick! Get under the cloak! The both of you!" James whispered urgently. The three boys scrambled under the cloak just in time. For right as they disappeared, Professor Dumbledore and an ugly man with a lot of different scars came out from behind the portrait.

"I don't know Alastor." Dumbledore said. "With all the deaths of muggles and muggle-borns, it seems that Voldemort does have a threat. Also, however was he able to get into St. Mungo's, kill every muggle-born witch or wizard there, and escape without anyone noticing? Doesn't this have to mean something?"

"All that this means is that the Ministry let its guard down. They didn't expect to for a Dark Wizard to come and start attacking muggles and muggle-borns. Albus, they just hit us in a weak spot. Once we get our act together we will be able to conquer this new dark wizard." The man called "Alastor" said.

"Exactly, Alastor. Don't you think he planned it that way? He knew that our protection for the muggle-borns and especially the muggles was weak, so he hit us where it hurt. However, what he obviously wants is for us to lay more protection around the muggles and less around the stone. For I can assure you Alastor, if he gets a hold of the stone, all will be lost." Dumbledore and Moody then walked out of the door, and all further conversation was lost.

Remus, James and Sirius all looked at each other in awe of what they had just heard.

A/N: Yeah, I know that chapter was a little longer. Oh well, I don't think that you're complaining! What did you think of that chapter? You found out a little more about the secret passageway and the room! If you have any questions or comments, feel free to review. Even if you don't, review anyway: P

Okay, so I got a couple of reviews, I was sort of hoping for more, but…you can't always get what you want in the world!

Ycantibreathe and eartha thank you so much for your reviews! It was nice to hear that you are enjoying my fic.

This time my goal is to get five reviews! If I can get five, I will update as soon as possible! I kno it's asking for a lot, but…PLEASE?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

The first few weeks of term passed rather quickly for the first year students. They didn't feel too overloaded with work and had plenty of time to play. As the end of October drew to an end, Halloween began to draw closer. Although the first year students had never been to the Halloween Feast at Hogwarts, they had heard a lot about it. There were supposedly pumpkins big enough for three people to fit into, and live bats flying all around the castle. Lily, Remus and Emmie were sitting in the library chatting excitedly about the upcoming feast.

"Did you hear that they have spiders as big as your head crawling up and down the wall?" Remus asked the two girls.

"Ewwww!" squeaked Emmie in terror. "Are you sure about that? What if they ate you or something?"

"For one thing Emmie, spiders can't eat you. For another, Remus is probably just lying to scare us." Lily said matter of factly.

"I don't know if it's true, it's just what somebody told me." Remus said defensively.

"Who told it to you?" Lily quizzed him.

"Sirius." Remus said simply.

"Oh." Lily said. Then turning to Emmie she said, "Then it's definitely not true."

"So." Emmie asked conversationally, "Are you guys going to the Halloween feast with anyone yet?" Just last week, James and Sirius had started the fad among all the first years of inviting dates to the Halloween feast by asking Rachel Anstruther and Kaitlyn Holmes if they would accompany them.

"Nope." Lily said shaking her head. "No one's asked me, but quite frankly I find the whole thing silly. It's just a feast and you'll see everyone in the school there anyways. But if somebody did ask me, which I don't think they would, I'd consider it. What about you Remus?"

"No." He said flatly, "I haven't been able to work up the nerve to ask anyone yet. James and Sirius have both got their dates though. They're taking Rachel Anstruther and Kaitlyn Holmes. They want me to take Marlene McKinnon because those three girls are best friends, but I don't think that I could stand Marlene's high-pitched voice for an entire night. What about you Emmie? Are you going with anybody?"

"Yes." Emmie giggled, blushing crimson.

"Well who is it then?" Lily demanded.

"Walter Anthony." She finally admitted.

"Hmm." Lily considered. "I haven't talked to him much, but he's always seemed nice."

"Yes." Remus agreed. "Lily?"

"Yeah?" Lily answered.

"Hey Remus!" came the voice of James Potter. "Get over here a minute will you? We need your help with something."

"I'll be right back." Remus said, getting up and walking over to where Sirius and James were sitting. Remus felt somewhat relieved and somewhat annoyed. He was just about to ask Lily to the Halloween feast when James called him over here. He knew that he wanted to ask Lily at some point, but he didn't really mind putting it off to later. He didn't know why he was so nervous, he could talk to her about everything else, but something about actually asking her out gave him the Goosebumps.

"Wow this has got to be the first time that you two have ever set foot in the library. Did you find your way here okay?" Remus asked.

"Made a couple of wrong turns, ended up somewhere near the Hufflepuff common room. But the head boy, Amos Diggory, helped us sort out where we wanted to go in the end." Sirius said.

"Well I suppose there's some reason you set foot in here for the first time." Remus said. This was his way of saying 'cut to the chase.'

"Yes, as a matter of fact there is." James said. "You know how the walled off the space directly above the secret room?"

"Yes." Remus said, starting to get worried.

"Well, we figure that there's got to be a different way to get in there. We're going to look again tomorrow night." James concluded.

"Okay then. Is that all?" Remus asked, now desperately wanting to get back and ask Lily, before it was too late.

"You're not lecturing us for being out of bounds after hours?" Sirius asked in awe.

"You're not refusing to come with us?" asked James.

"No, I'm not. I, like you, want to know more about the stone thing, and the Daily Profit sure as hell isn't telling us anything about that. Plus, without my help you two would probably get a whole load of shit. And I'm not talking a couple of detentions, depending on how secret a mission Dumbledore and McGonagall are involved in, you could be expelled." Remus said, simply.

With that, Remus headed back to their table where two boys were now chatting with Lily and Emmie. One of the boys Remus recognized as Walter Anthony, Emmie's date, but the other, he hadn't seen before. Before he got to the table, however, the two boys said goodbye to Lily and Emmie, and left.

"Who were they?" Remus asked Lily as he sat back down.

"Oh Walter Anthony, Emmie's date," she said, gesturing to Emmie, who was now immersed in reading her Defense Against the Dark Arts book. "and his friend, Kyle Gallagher. Kyle just asked me to go to the feast with him, and I obliged."

"I'm glad to hear it!" Remus lied, forcing his face into a smile.

"What did Potter and Black want?" Lily asked curiously.

"Oh, just some stuff…" Remus said.

"Oh, okay." Lily said, checking her watch. "It's almost 7:30. We should probably think about heading up to the common room now."

"Yeah, okay." Remus agreed.

Lily and Remus said goodbye to Emmie and started going up to Gryffindor Tower. On his way up, he saw Marlene coming out of the lou, and decided to ask her to the feast. According to James, she didn't yet have a date to the feast, and Rachel said that she was asking about him. That being said, Remus felt pretty comfortable asking her. He told Lily that he had to use the lou and not to wait for him, then went back to find Marlene.

"Hey." He said smoothly tapping her on the shoulder.

"Oh! Hey!" She said looking back at him. "You're not going out with Evans are you?"

"Lily? Oh no! She and I were just in the library and happened to be leaving at the same time." Remus lied, knowing that Marlene didn't like Lily much.

"Oh, okay." She said.

"Actually," Remus said, "I came here to ask you a question. I was wondering if you would like to go to the Halloween feast with me."

"Yes, of course." She said. "But I gotta go now! I promised Kaitlyn I'd meet her in the girl's dorm, to help her with her Transfiguration essay. How about we in the common room around five tomorrow?"

"Yeah, sure! I'll see you then." Remus said, smiling. 'Since when do you meet your date at five o'clock for a seven o'clock feast?' he wondered. 'Did she expect him to do something with her before the feast?' He then went up to ask Sirius and James.

Lily sat on her bed, preparing to go to sleep when Marlene came in with a huge smile on her face. "Oh my God! Rachel! Kaitlyn! You'll never guess what just happened?" She screamed.

"What?" both girls asked excitedly and in unison.

"Remus Lupin asked me to go to the feast with him!" She exclaimed happily. All three girls stood there screaming and jumping up and down for a while.

When they finally settled down Rachel said "Oh my God! This is like so cool! Are three dates are best friends like us!"

"Do they expect us to wear our school robes to this feast?" Kaitlyn asked. "Or are we allowed to dress up?"

"I don't know what we're allowed to do, but I'm going as a cat. I have this really cute costume! Hold on," Rachel said, rummaging through her trunk, "I'll show you guys." She found it and held it up for the room to see. Lily sat up and looked at it. She couldn't help noticing that it looked more like black lingerie with black tights and cat ears, than anything else.

"Sexy." Kaitlyn said.

"If James didn't know before, he'd definitely know you were hot after seeing you in that thing." Marlene said.

Seeing Lily staring at her costume she said. "Lily, how do you like my costume? Do you think that your date would like to see you in this? Wait, you do have a date, don't you?"

"Yes. I'm going with Kyle Gallagher, and I doubt I'd want him to see me in nothing short of underwear on our very first date. For you, I suppose it's nice though." Lily said coolly.

Rachel chose to ignore Lily's comment. She turned to Kaitlyn ad Marlene and asked "So do you girls have your costumes yet?"

"I wasn't sure if we could wear them, but I totally had one just in case." Kaitlyn said. She opened her trunk and brought out a costume similar to Rachel's, except it had a pink bodice, with white fluff around the top, white tights, and bunny ears instead of cat ones.

"Oh my God that is so cute!" Marlene exclaimed.

"The pink and white totally goes well with your complexion and hair. Sirius is going to fall head over heals when he sees you in that thing!" Rachel said.

"Thanks!" Kaitlyn said. "What about you Marlene, do you have a costume yet?"

"Yeah, but it's not as cute as your guys'." Marlene said.

"I'm sure it is!" Kaitlyn said, "Just show it to us!"

"Fine, but don't laugh." Marlene went and fetched her costume from her trunk. When she got back, all three girls just stared at it. Marlene looked from Rachel to Kaitlyn and even around to Lily. "What? You guys hate it don't you! I knew it was ugly when my mom picked it out."

"You let your mom pick out your costume?" Rachel asked in disbelief.

"Yeah well, I just forgot about and had to have her send me up one." Marlene shrugged.

"Have you ever heard of a catalog?" Rachel asked with her eyebrows raised. "Wait! That's it! A costume catalog! I even have one with me. If we hurry we can get it by tomorrow!" Rachel ran to her bag and grabbed a catalog out of it. The three girls looked through the catalog until they found a mouse costume that they deemed acceptable. After placing the order they turned to Lily.

"Do you have a costume for the dance Evans?" Marlene asked.

"Yes." Lily said simply.

"Let's see it then." Rachel said.

Lily pulled out her white halter dress and blonde wig from the bottom of her trunk.

"Who are you supposed to be?" Kaitlyn asked.

"Marilyn Monroe." Lily replied stately. "She was an American actress from the forties and fifties."

"Oh…" Kaitlyn said. Lily smiled inwardly and amended her mother for her choice of costume. The dress was pretty enough so that Kaitlyn, Marlene and Rachel didn't criticize it, but not showy enough for them to call her a slut or a whore. But then again, they had nothing to explain about, if the three of them went out in their costumes at their ages, people would be appalled.

When Remus entered the boys dormitory, James asked him, "So. Have you got a date to the Halloween feast yet?"

"Yup!" Remus said smiling.

"So, Evans said yes then?" Sirius said, conversationally. Both he and James knew that Remus fancied Lily, but wouldn't admit it. Although they disliked her, they were glad that he'd finally asked her out, for his sake.

"No…" Remus began.

"WHAT?" James interrupted. "She said no?"

"No." Remus said simply. "She's going with Emmie's date's friend, Kyle Gallagher."

"Why didn't you ask her?" James asked.

"Because I didn't want to, okay? Her and I are just friends." Remus said.

"Who are you going with, then?" Sirius asked.

"Marlene McKinnon." Remus said.

"Oh good! That's a relief. Sirius, Rachel and I were worried that we'd have to set her up with Peter Pettigrew, that fat kid in our dorm; he was the only Gryffindor boy in our year, besides you, without a date. And we thought that you weren't interested." James said.

"No, I was interested. I just couldn't get the nerve to ask her before now." Remus said. "I wonder why nobody else asked her before me. She's pretty enough."

"People did, she wanted you to ask her though, so she said 'no'." James replied.

"What time are you guys meeting Rachel and Kaitlyn?"

"Five o'clock, why?" Sirius said.

"That's what time Marlene told me to meet her. What are you guys going to do for the two hours before the feast?" Remus asked.

"Oh! She probably thought he was in on the…" James said, turning to Sirius.

"Oh!" Sirius said surprised. "Well I suppose he can come…"

"Wanna ask him?" James asked.

"Ask me what?" Remus asked, tapping his foot impatiently.

"You see, Arthur Weasley's putting on a haunted house in the forbidden forest. It was supposed to be for fifth, sixth, and seventh years only, but we found out about it and posed the threat that we might tell McGonagall or someone. As if." James snorted. "Anyways, he invited us to come and see it and I don't think it would be too much bother if you and Marlene came as well?"

"If Arthur's only opening it to fifth, sixth, and seventh years, don't you think it will be really scary and that the girls would get scared?" Remus asked.

"Exactly." Sirius said with a sly glint in his eyes.

"So you asked them out just to hear them scream?" Remus said, appalled. "That was mean!"

"Well that was the original reason for it." James said. "But we figure we'll hang out with them for the rest of the night just for the hell of it."

"Damn right you will" Remus said.

"So are you going to come or not? We've gotta tell Arthur if you are." Sirius asked.

"What else am I going to do for two hours?" Remus asked.

A/N: Sorry that chapter wasn't as long as the last one—every chapter can't eight pages! J Can you see Lily's life getting better? Two guys wanted to go to the feast with her and neither Marlene, Rachel nor Kaitlyn made a snide remark at her all night. In the next chapter will be the haunted house and the Halloween feast. Please read and review!


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

James was searching around the dorm room for his blonde wig. "Have you seen my wig?" he asked Sirius frantically.

"Nope," Sirius said placing his own wig on his head. "But your hair stands up so much already that all you have to do is dye your hair blonde."

"Ha, ha." James scoffed. "Remus! Have you seen my wig?" he called to Remus, who was in the bathroom.

"Ehh by aa oila!" Remus yelled back.

"What?" James asked, confused. He heard Remus spit into the sink, and then the running of water.

"It's in here, by the toilet!" Remus yelled back.

"How the hell did it get in there?"

"Dunno. It's your wig. Hold on." A couple of seconds later Remus opened the door and let James through to get the wig.

"So you're a Quidditch player from the Tornadoes?" Sirius asked looking at Remus from head to toe.

"Yeah, Pierce Abbott. He's a beater." Remus said.

"You wanna be a beater?" Sirius asked.

"Nah! I'd rather be a chaser, but when I went into the Quidditch supplies store, the only robes they had in stock were for Abbott." Remus explained. "What about you, do you play Quidditch?"

"Yeah, I'm a beater, and I'm fast. I'll show you that tomorrow, when we have our first flying lesson." Sirius bragged.

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Remus said. "During our first lesson, they usually only let us go up and down and crap."

"You think that'll stop me?" Sirius asked.

"I think that the threat of expulsion would." Remus replied.

"We better get off." Sirius said, ignoring Remus' last comment. "C'mon Bevis!"

"Coming!" James called, trying to tie one of his shoes and walk at the same time.

The three boys went downstairs and into the common room. Everybody laughed as Sirius and James passed them. When they got to Marlene, Kaitlyn and Rachel, the three girls erupted in a fit of giggles.

"Bevis and Butthead!" Rachel laughed, "Fits."

"I don't think I wanna go out with you anymore" James scoffed, jovially.

"Ha, ha, ha." Rachel said, playfully hitting him with her purse. "Anyways, your glasses set you apart from the crowd."

"Why, thank you." James said.

"If that's the way you want to take it, you're welcome." She answered.

"It is. So what are you, and underwear model?" James guessed.

"I'm a cat." She answered pointing to her cat ears and holding out her tail for him to see.

"You look nice." Was all that James could say. He tell her this, but he felt rather uncomfortable walking around with someone that was wearing so little.

"Why thank you!" she said.

They walked down the grand staircase and into the entrance hall.

"So where are we going?" Rachel nagged as they walked outside the castle doors.

"Sorry!" James said. "I can't tell you, it's a secret. See I promised Arthur Weasley I wouldn't tell anyone about it."

"Fine. I guess I'll just have to wait then." Rachel said. As they neared a small shed, Rachel grew even more confused. "Okay, I'm really confused now. Please tell me where we're going!" She nagged.

"Sorry, can't" James said defiantly. He went up to the door of the shed and broke the lock by using the "Aloha Mora" charm.

He then reached in and grabbed six broomsticks. When he handed one to Kaitlyn she said "I don't know how to fly." She claimed.

"You don't know…" James began, but Sirius interrupted him. "You can ride with me." He said. Kaitlyn then got on the broom behind him.

Upon hearing this, Rachel and Marlene both claimed that they didn't know how to ride either. James put two more brooms away, mounted his own and waited for Rachel to climb on. She swung her leg over the broom, hugged him around the waist and rested the side of her head on his shoulder. James then kicked off from the ground, closely followed by Remus and Sirius.

"Hey! Lily!" It was five o'clock and Lily had been walking up to her dormitory when she heard the call of a tan, dark haired boy.

"Oh, hey Walter!" she called back to Emmie's date.

"Come here! I have to tell you something!" he called, motioning her over to where he was standing. Lily ran over to him, wondering what he had to say. When she got there, he paused a while before speaking. "I'm really sorry to tell you this, but Kyle can't go to the feast with you."

"Oh…" she said flabbergasted, "Why?"

"Ermm…to tell you the truth…erm…well, Palliva Patil asked and her…erm…said yes." Walter said, looking rather uncomfortable. "But you can come with me and Emmie if you like."

"Err…that's okay…" Lily began, feeling teardrops welling up in her eyes. "Excuse me…I have to go now." She didn't know what to do, she had been so excited about this whole feast thing, now her date backed out on her because Palliva had invited him. 'Why couldn't he have had the decency to say no?' she wondered. 'He would still see Palliva at the feast, probably with some other guy, but he would still be able to talk to her and stuff.' She knew that Palliva was prettier than her, but that didn't give Kyle the right to back out on her when Palliva asked him.

"You okay there?" She heard the deep voice of somebody coming from some five feet above her. She looked up and saw Hagrid looking at her, his brown eyes filled with worry.

"Not really," she said honestly.

"How er bout coming o'er to me house for some tea, ehh?" Hagrid asked her.

"Actually that sounds nice." Lily said, following Hagrid out the front doors and onto the grounds. Some twenty feet ahead of them, Lily saw Rachel, Potter, Kaitlyn, Black, Marlene and Remus walking towards a shed. Rachel and Potter were talking animatedly about something or another, Black and Kaitlyn were laughing, and Remus and Marlene were just walking. Lily couldn't help but notice that they looked somewhat uncomfortable. As they neared Hagrid's cabin, Lily's attention drew away from her fellow first years and to a barking noise coming from inside the cabin.

"Do you have a dog, Hagrid?" Lily asked.

"Yes, err two actually. But only Fang lives with me, Fluffy lives in the Forbidden Forest, ya see, he's to big to fit in me house." Hagrid replied. He opened the door for Lily and she walked inside. "So what's troubling yer?" he asked, as she collapsed into one of his chairs. "How er bout I'll make the tea while yer tell me, a'ight?" Hagrid offered.

As Hagrid fetched a teapot to boil the water in, Lily began to tell Hagrid what had made her day so miserable. When she finished, Hagrid looked down at her sympathetically. "I'm sorry to hear that. I'll tell yer what though, if yer like, I'll go to that feast with yer."

"Thanks Hagrid," she replied, tears now streaming out of her eyes, "But I don't think I could bear to go to the feast anymore. Blast Potter and Black for even inviting those stupid girls in the first place." She cried. Hagrid just sat there and comforted her.

"Do yer want a cookie?" He offered, holding her out a plate full of lumpy cookies. She took one gratefully and tried to bite into it, only she couldn't. She held the cookie in her mouth for a moment longer, until Hagrid turned away. Then she quickly stuffed it into her pocket so that she wouldn't chip her tooth.

For the rest of her time in Hagrid's cabin, Hagrid drew her away from her problems by trying to explain Quidditch to her. As hard as he tried, she just couldn't grasp the concept of it.

When they landed in the Forbidden Forest, the three girls looked around. James could tell that they were all scared.

Kaitlyn was the first to speak, "I thought the Forbidden Forest was like forbidden." She said looking around, and jumping when some birds flew out of a tree.

James had an idea. When nobody was looking, he ran a few paces ahead and hid behind a tree. He waited for a few second while Sirius and Remus tried to persuade their dates to come further into the forest, until Rachel said "Where's James?"

Sirius shrugged, "Probably got fed up with you sissy's and went ahead. I sorta wish that I had done the same."

Rachel then said, "That was sorta mean of him, I wasn't complaining."

Remus ignored this, took Marlene's arm and said "Let's go!"

With that they came closer and closer to James. When they were a few feet away James stood up, getting ready to spring. Rachel was on the outside of the group, it was just so perfect. He jumped out at her, and she screamed "AHHHHHHHHHH!" before realizing it was him. When she came back to reality and hit him with her purse saying "That was mean!"

"That was hilarious!" Sirius laughed.

"Ow!" James exclaimed, "That hurt! What do you got in that thing?"

"Serves you right!" Rachel said, turning away and crossing her arms.

"No, seriously, what do you have in that thing?" James asked, trying to grab the purse. Rachel, however, moved it out of his reach, and when he tried again, she ran away. James ran after her, and had caught up with her in a matter of seconds. He ran over and started opening it.

"Hmmm…" He said rummaging through it's contents, "I found: some makeup, a mirror, and…what's this?" he exclaimed triumphantly, pulling a white piece of paper out of Rachel's purse.

"Give that back!" Rachel screamed, when she saw him pulling the piece of paper out of her purse. She tried to grab it, but James, being a few inches taller than her, held it out of her reach.

James unfolded the piece of paper and started reading it aloud. "I heart James, James is hot, James + Rachel, Mrs. James Potter, I heart James (again), Rachel Potter…" Rachel finally managed to grab the piece of paper out of his hand, but he had already read enough of it to get the gist of it. Although he could see Rachel's face growing hot, James was rather proud of what he had just done.

The whole group was silent for a while, before Sirius broke the silence by saying, "Are we just going to sit here all day, or are we going to find Arthur?"

"Let's go." Remus agreed.

Around 6 o'clock, Lily thanked Hagrid for tea and headed up to the castle. Hanging out with Hagrid had been fun and Lily was in a much better mood. She decided that she would go to the Halloween feast. It wasn't as if she would be the only student there without a date, and the decorations were supposed to be spectacular. Lily had seen the pumpkins growing in his yard just last week when she had visited him, and the were humongous.

Lily walked into her dormitory, and found it empty. She knew that Rachel, Kaitlyn and Marlene were off to God knows where with Potter, Black and Remus. And she supposed that Casey was hanging out with her date, Taylor Hall, before the feast began.

She opened her trunk and brought out her dress and put it on. She then tied her hair back in a low bun so that she could fit the wig over it. She looked perfect, no red locks were protruding from under the blond mass, but she did need some make up. She decided to wear a lot of make-up, as did Marilyn Monroe. She covered her face in powder, put on sparkly eye shadow, pink blush, red lipstick and fake eyelashes.

She pronounced herself read and went down to the feast. The doors were closed and students were waiting to get in. She looked down at her watch and noted that she was fifteen minutes early. Under normal circumstances, she would have gone upstairs or to the Library to get some more work done. But tonight, however, the Entrance Hall was done up so nicely that she decided to look around.

Hagrid's giant pumpkins were lining the walls, each of them carved by a different teacher. Hagrid's pumpkin was drawn to look roughly like tree, Professor Dumbledore carved his into a surprised face, Professor McGonagall's looked like a cat and Professor Flitwick's was a bowler's cap with stars on it. Also, besides the glow of the candles lit from inside the pumpkins, the hall was dark. Lily was about to look around some more when she saw Walter, Emmie, Kyle and Palliva coming down the stairs. She quickly ducked and hid behind a statue, where she hid until the feast started.

As they neared the end of the haunted house, Sirius was proud of himself for not screaming once. Before he went through the haunted house, he had thought it a good way to hear the girls scream, but now, as he neared the end of it, he realized why Arthur had only wanted fifth, sixth and seventh years. The haunted house was like a maze, with something scary around every corner. Sirius saw his least favorite thing about halfway through the maze. It was two halves of a girl in a white dress lying on the ground. And she was solid too, he now owed James 1 galleon for finding that out.

The haunted house wasn't all bad. Ever since the first monster popped out at them, and Kaitlyn screamed, she had held onto him. He felt rather uncomfortable, because this was the closest he'd ever been to a girl before, but he liked the feeling all the same. Also, he would never forget the way James screamed when the mummy came out, grabbed him, and tried to take him back into his tomb with him. Taking a leaf out of Rachel's book, he hit the mummy, using his one free hand, with Rachel's purse.

When they exited the haunted house, Arthur was standing outside. "How was it?" he asked scaring at the terrified expressions on each of their faces. "Too scary?" He laughed, as if to say 'I told you so' to James and Sirius who had begged him for hours to let them come.

James forced a laugh. "You wish." He lied. "I didn't scream once, I'd try to think of some better ideas if you ever want to do this again."

"Yeah right!" Remus laughed, "You were screaming as bad as theses three" he said, waving his hand at the girls, when the mummy tried to take you into it's tomb with them."

"Was not!" James said defiantly.

"We all saw you." Sirius began. "But don't worry, we'll take you to a haunted house for people like you next year." He teased in a baby voice, pinching James' cheek.

"Get off me." He said pushing. The six of them then thanked Arthur and walked back to where they had left their broomstick. They rode back up to the broom cupboard and put the brooms away and walked up to the feast.

"Hey Lily" came a voice from behind her. Lily looked up from her food to see Remus and Marlene standing there.

"Oh, hey." She said.

"Where's…err…" Remus couldn't remember the boys name.

"Kyle?" Lily offered. "He decided he'd rather go with Palliva Patil." Lily explained, gesturing over the Ravenclaw table. There, Remus saw Kyle, Palliva, Walter and Emmie all laughing about something or another.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Remus said, he didn't quite know what to say. "We're going to go over and sit by James and Sirius, but you can join us if you want to." Remus offered.

"Thanks," Lily said appreciatively, "But I think that I'll just…" She drifted off and took another bite.

As Remus and Marlene walked towards James and Sirius, Marlene said "I feel sort of badly for her, but I don't blame Kyle for wanting to go with Palliva instead. I mean she's so weird, you know?"

Remus was silent for a moment, before making his decision. "Yeah I feel badly for her too." He said, ignoring the last part of Marlene's comment. "Let's go over there and sit by her."

"But what about sitting by Rachel and Kaitlyn?" she whined. "We promised them we'd sit by them. Anyways, Lily can sit over here if she wants to."

"You know she won't sit by James and Sirius." Remus said. "I'm going to go sit by her. You don't have to come if you don't want to." With that, Remus turned his back on Marlene and went to go sit down by Lily.

As Lily was getting ready for bed, she heard three sets of footsteps coming upstairs, and two giggling voices.

"Guess what happened?" Rachel giggled.

"What?" Kaitlyn asked excitedly.

"He kissed me!" she squealed before bursting into a fit of giggles.

"Me too!" Kaitlyn said excitedly. They held hands and started jumping up and down. "What about you, Marlene, how did your date go?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Marlene said before stomping off to her bed and drawing the curtains shut.

After Rachel relaxed a little, she hit Kaitlyn hard in the shoulder. "OW!" Kaitlyn yelled. "What was that for?" she asked, outraged.

"When Marlene and Remus sat at different spots, it obviously meant something didn't go well." Rachel said.

"Oh…" Kaitlyn said, a look of comprehension dawning on her face. "That's why they didn't sit together…"

"Oh my God, Kaitlyn!" Rachel said, getting annoyed. "You're such a typical blonde sometimes!" Rachel then left Kaitlyn standing there and went to get her pajamas on.

Lily decided to go and try to comfort Marlene. After all, it was partially her fault that Marlene was feeling so badly. She went over next to Marlene's bed and opened the curtains just enough to see Marlene sitting on her bed, crying. "Marlene?" she asked timidly.

"Go away!" Marlene said, looking up and seeing that it was Lily.

"I just wanted to say that I was sorry about what happened at dinner. Remus didn't mean anything by sitting by me, him and I are just friends. He just felt bad for me because I got stood up." Lily explained.

"Well, I'm sorry to hear about your heartbreaking story, but I'm not really in the mood right now. Now if you'll excuse me I want to get sleep." She said, closing the curtains to cover up Lily's face. As far as she was concerned, Lily had stolen her boyfriend away from her. She wished Lily would just go away, and with the picture of their dormitory with only four beds in it.

A/N: So here it is the eighth chapter! I don't really know what to say about it! I'm all tired out from writing right now.

I was somewhat disappointed that I didn't receive any reviews for the last chapters. I saw in my chapter statistics that a bunch of people read it. Even if you didn't like it, I'd really appreciate it if you reviewed. :-) Thank you SO much!


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

The first term and a half seemed to take forever to Lily, and she couldn't wait to go home for Christmas. Petunia had been invited to a friend's resort in Hawaii for the first half of break, and so it would be just Lily and her parents.

Although her life at Hogwarts was improving, Lily still wasn't thoroughly enjoying herself. Marlene hadn't spoken to her ever since Halloween, and Rachel and Kaitlyn were prone to sneer at her when she passed them in the hallways. Even Remus had acted distant towards her since then. She suspected this had something to do with Potter and Black.

She was starting to get really annoyed with them, just last week they had put a simple sleeping draught in her pumpkin juice and she fell asleep at breakfast. She missed learning the repairing charm in charms. Although she had previously taught it to herself, she was annoyed all the same. Also, she didn't understand what business hers and Remus' friendship was of theirs. They had no right to boss Remus around and tell him who he could be friends with and who he couldn't.

Lily looked down at her blank parchment. She hadn't taken a single note all throughout History of Magic. 'Oh well,' she thought, 'I'll copy them from Emmie at lunch.' She got up and went to find her friend.

She caught up with her in the Entrance Hall. "Hey Emmie?" she asked out of breath.

"Yeah?" Emmie replied, kindly.

"Can I borrow your notes from History of Magic. I looked down at my parchment at the end of the period and realized that I hadn't written a thing all class. Thinking Christmas Break, I guess." Lily explained.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. I did the same thing today. I was planning on asking you for your notes, you always seem to take them." Emmie replied.

"I try." Lily said. "And thank God I do, otherwise I would fail every exam."

"If it weren't for your notes I would fail every exam too." Emmie laughed, Lily laughed with her. "I guess we can ask Remus for his notes."

"He probably didn't take any," Lily scoffed. "He was sitting with Potter and Black today, and they were talking about something or another in low voices."

"Are you guys in a fight or something?" Remus asked. "Because you guys have seemed sort of distant towards each other ever since Halloween."

"Honestly, I don't know." Lily said. "I think that Potter and Black told him not to hang out with me or something. Because I have noticed his being distance toward me ever since Halloween too."

"Why don't you try asking him about it?" Emmie suggested.

"I've tried, on many occasions. But every time I do Black or Potter seem to show up and usher him away." Lily said. "I really want to be friends with him again."

"I'm sorry." Emmie replied sympathetically. "Would you like me to ask him for notes from the both of us?"

"Would you?" Lily asked gratefully. "Thank you so much!"

James, Sirius, and Remus had finally found a use for History of Magic, besides sleeping. Since everyone, except Evans and Vance, were always either sleeping or daydreaming, nobody would ever here their conversations.

They decided to put their hour and a half of time to use by trying to figure out how to get into the secret room. Throughout the past month they had tried at least ten times to get past Dumbledore's obstacles, without success. Instead of causing them to give up, however, each time they failed to find a way in, they would become more determined to find out what had happened.

They had already looked at both the ceiling above the room and the floor beneath it and both were useless. The floor of the story above it had been blocked off from last time they had tried to get through it, and the ceiling of the story below it was too high up for them to reach. They were all three staying at Hogwarts throughout Christmas Vacation and had mad a promise to each other to find a way into the secret room by the end of break.

"I think that we should see how thick the walls are, maybe we could listen through them." James suggested.

"Dumbledore would've thought of that." Remus stated. "What if they got into an argument and some students accidentally heard?"

"True." James said. "But that would also mean that they've probably put a silencing charm around the room. Therefore we'd actually have to get into the room to hear anything."

"This is getting more confusing by the minute." Sirius said slamming his hand on the desk. "Wait, I have an idea! If the walls are thick, why don't we go in-between them? I know that they probably put a silencing charm around it and all, but it would at least give us a chance to explore the perimeter of the room. Plus, we could figure out how big the room is and such."

"Good idea, Sirius. We'll try that not tomorrow night, but the night after—the first night of Christmas Vacation. If we don't find out how to get in then, we will continue every night of break until we do. Does that sound good?" James asked.

"Actually, I've been meaning to tell you guys, I have to leave school on Monday night and probably won't be back until Wednesday. When I wrote my parents and told them that I wouldn't be coming home for Christmas, they wrote back and insisted that I at least come home for a couple of days." Remus told the boys reluctantly.

"That's okay, we'll definitely figure out how to get in there by Monday." Sirius said confidently. Because to them on that Tuesday morning, Monday seemed a long ways off.

After dinner, Lily and Emmie went into the Library to study for their Transfiguration test. It was their first practical test of the year, and they were rather nervous. "Okay," Lily said, looking in her transfiguration text, "Transform this tortoise" She said getting the tortoise out from the box of supplies Professor McGonagall had lent them, "into a teapot."

Emmie muttered the spell and pointed her wand at the teapot. Lily thought that she had done a perfect job, until the "teapot" walked across the table and fell over the edge. "Oh damn." Emmie muttered as she looked over the edge of the table and saw the teapot shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces.

"That's okay." Lily coaxed, "I can fix this easily." She got up from her chair and walked over to where the teapot lay shattered. She knelt down beside the pieces and muttered "Repairo!" The pieces sprung to life and fixed themselves together perfectly. Nobody would ever need to know what had happened.

"Wow Lily!" Emmie exclaimed, "You're brilliant!"

"At Charms, maybe, but Transfiguration is a whole different story." Lily said before sitting down and trying to turn the teapot back into a tortoise, without success.

About a half hour later, when both of the girls had mastered turning the teapot into a tortoise and back again, Emmie spoke up, "Hey Lily, I was going to ask you, what are you doing over Christmas Eve?"

"Ermm…my sister will be in Hawaii with a friend, so it'll be just me and my parents. Why?" Lily asked.

"Well, every year my neighbors, who are muggles, have a Christmas party on Christmas Eve, and they always tell us we can invite whoever we want. Well, I was wondering if you and your parents would like to come." Emmie suggested.

"That sound fun!" Lily said. "I'll have to post my parents and see though. Where do you guys live?"

"Number 7, Swiffstin Lane." Emmie recited. "Make sure to tell your parents their muggles though, and so they can't use any magic while we're there."

"I don't think that'll be a problem." Lily answered. "My parents are muggles too."

"Oh okay!" Emmie said happily, "That solves that problem then."

Lily went to get their next project out of the box, while Emmie took a second to look around the Library. She saw Remus at another table, trying, and failing, to master the "engorgio" charm. Turning to Lily, she suggested, "Why don't you go help Remus with his Charms?"

"Why me?" Lily asked, looking up at Remus for a quick second before continuing to rummage through the box.

"Because you're the best witch in our year at Charms, and last I heard, Remus was still your friend." Emmie said, exasperatedly.

"I think he can figure it out by himself." Lily said, taking out a box of matches.

"You know you're going to have to start talking to him again at some point." Emmie pointed out.

"He's the one that stopped talking; he's the one that can start again." Lily said stubbornly.

"Maybe there's more to the story than you know." Emmie stated.

"Maybe you should ask him about it. You're the one that cares so much." Lily said, now trying to make her match turn into a needle.

"You know," Emmie said, "I don't care. You go ahead and not talk to him ever again. I'm still friends with him. I was just trying to look in your best interests." She then grabbed a match out of the box Lily had, and transfigured it into a perfect needle.

With that, Lily got up and walked over to where Remus was sitting. She supposed he hadn't seen her, because he hadn't turned around. She cleared her through, he didn't even move. She waited a couple of minutes before finally speaking. "So, had laryngitis lately? Haven't heard much from you."

"What?" Remus asked, looking up at her with a look of bewilderment on his face.

"Why haven't you been talking to me?" Lily asked.

"I thought you didn't want me to." Remus said simply.

It was Lily's turn to look bewildered. "What?" she exclaimed. "Wherever did you get that idea?"

"James said that Rachel said that you said that you thought that we shouldn't talk for a while, after what happened at the Halloween feast." Remus explained.

"What? I said not such thing! You tell Potter that he is a lying asshole and that he should keep his big fat head out of other peoples business. Better yet, I'll tell him." With that, she stormed out of the Library to find Potter.

Lily ran up six flights of stairs, muttered the password to the fat lady, and climbed through the portrait hole and into the common room. She took a moment to catch her breath as she looked around the common room for Potter. He had to be in here, he never went near the library, and it was too early for him to be sneaking out. Sure enough, she found him sitting on a couch with Rachel, a few seconds later. She stomped over their and turned to face the pair of them.

"Potter!" she said furiously.

"What Evans?" he asked, looking up at her, clearly annoyed.

"I need to talk to you." She leaned down, grabbed his arm, and marched him away from Rachel, all the way to the other side of the common room.

"What the hell do you want Evans?" he asked impatiently.

"I know you don't like me, and I honestly couldn't give a care. However, I really don't appreciate it when you put your big fat head into other peoples business." Lily said, looking at him furiously.

"Well, I don't appreciate it when you interrupt me in the middle of a conversation." James said, annoyed with her. "And I don't know what the hell you're talking about." He added.

"Oh, I think you do." Lily said. "Why did you tell Remus that I said I thought we should stop talking?"

"Because Rachel said you did." James shrugged.

"Rachel?" Lily asked, confused. She had been sure that it was James that was trying to ruin their friendship not Rachel. Although Rachel had never been kind to Lily, she had never been truly mean to her either. To Lily Rachel had seemed smart enough to know that Lily shouldn't be blamed for what had happened at the Halloween feast.

"Is that all?" James asked impatiently, "Or do you want to get all up in my ass about something else?"

"Erm…no…sorry" she added, before turning on her heel and going to bed.

The next morning, Lily woke up early, as usual, and headed down to breakfast. When she got down there she saw Remus and Emmie reading the front page of the Daily Profit with grim expressions on their faces. When she reached the spot where they were sitting, Remus quickly hid the front of the article from Lily's view. "Erm…Lily?" he began tentatively. "Where did you say you lived again?"

"Number 5, Private Drive, why?" Lily asked, an expression of worry coming onto her face.

"Err…well…the Green Skull…" Remus said.

"What?" Lily exclaimed. "Did it say who was killed? Was anyone by the last name of Evans killed?"

"No." Emmie said, "We checked. But some of your neighbors were." She said grimly handing Lily the article. Lily picked it up and began to read it.

The Green Skull Strikes Again

The Green Skull, writes Daily Profit reporter Dorcas Meadows, has been found yet again levitating above numbers 4, 9, and 12 Private Drive in Surrey, England. Although, all inhabitants of this vicinity are muggles, the deaths of five more people should not be taken into lightly by the wizarding world.

To better prepare yourself, lest you be put in the position of these unfortunate muggles, you should always make sure you have an alternate way to escape out of your house. Also, charm your door so that a simple "Aloha Mora" charm won't open it. Be creative: if necessary, make a password that no one but you would guess. If worst comes to worst place the Furunculous Charm upon yourselves. This will ensure your safety.

Lily stopped reading the article there because the rest of it described how to better protect yourself from being in the position of her five neighbors on Private Drive. She skimmed the article to find out who died. She found the names in the very last paragraph: Katie Cole, Lindsay Cole, Agatha Mormon, Yanci Blanchester, and Robert Blanchester. Although Lily had never known any of them that well, she knew who they were.

Katie and Lindsay Cole were two twins living with their single mom—Lily and Petunia had used to baby-sit them. Lily knew that their mother had gone to any length she could to try and give them the life she deserved. It didn't seem fair to Lily that they should be taken away from their mother like that.

Agatha Mormon was the elderly woman who lived down the street from Lily. Although she had seemed rude at times, it didn't seem fair for her to die in the hands of a wizard. She had never done anything to deserve it.

Yanci and Robert Blanchester were the newly wedded couple who had moved in a couple of weeks before Lily had left for Hogwarts. Although Lily hadn't gotten to know them very well, the seemed like decent people. They were just starting a life together; they were planning on having a family someday. It didn't seem fair that their futures were snatched away from them, before they had a chance to live them.

Sirius and James were walking to the Great Hall for breakfast when they passed Snape and a boy James recognized as Rodolphus Lestrange. "Looks like our good friend, Snivillus." James said. "Haven't paid him a visit in a while."

"You know, you're right." Sirius said. "We'll have to repay him for all of our lost time!" he exclaimed, a sly smile spreading across his face.

"I think I have an idea." James said, seeing a mouse run across the ground. "But first I need that mouse."

"No problem." Sirius said, rolling up his sleeves and getting out his wand. "Stupefy!" he shouted, pointing his wand at the mouse. As soon as the spell hit it, it fell down, stunned.

"I sorta needed it to be alive for what I was gonna do." James explained.

"Oh, it's alive, just stunned." Sirius said. "I used to use the spell on my brother all the time when I wanted to have some peace for a few hours. Then I'd use the counter spell and threaten to curse him again if he told mum or dad."

James laughed, "That's harsh!" Then he went over and picked the mouse up by it's tail. "Okay, could you perform the counter spell now?"

Sirius went up to where James was standing and muttered "Innervate!" The mouse then sprang to life and James transfigured it into a scorpion. "Where'd you learn to do that?" Sirius asked. "Were not supposed to do cross-species transfigurations until third year."

"Dunno." James shrugged. "Was staring at Theresa Winterson when she was practicing it the other day."

"She's hot" Sirius said and James nodded. "Speaking of hot, guess who's name I saw down on staying for Christmas Break?"

"Who's?" James asked.

"Elizabeth Rapp's" Sirius asked, "I was thinking that you could talk to her for me. You know, ask her if she wanted to hook up or something."

"What about your girlfriend, Kaitlyn?" James asked.

Sirius shrugged, "She's going to Rome for Christmas, she'll never find out. Anyways, what do you plan to do with that scorpion?" Sirius asked pointedly.

"Oh, I was thinking about giving Snivillus a friendly hug, and accidentally drop this little guy down his robes." James said.

"I like it." Sirius said, then turning to where Snape and Lestrange were standing shouted "Hey Snivillus, dear old friend! Haven't seen you for a while."

"No, thank God." Snape muttered.

"What was that?" James asked.

"Nothing." Snape said. "Good to see you too Potter, Black." He claimed through gritted teeth.

James then when up and gave Snape a hug dropping the scorpion down his robes. Snape tried to push him away, but James wouldn't budge until he was certain that the scorpion had found it's way down Snape's robes. James backed away and Snape let out a high-pitched shriek. James and Sirius burst out laughing and Rodolphus just stood there staring at the scene.

Just then, Professor McGonagall came down the stairways and started from boy to boy. "Mr. Lestrange, will you be kind enough to tell me what happened?" Professor McGonagall asked. Sirius and James exchanged glances, smiles now disappearing from their faces.

"Well," Lestrange began, "Severus and I were just standing here when Potter and Black came…" That was all James and Sirius needed to hear, they new that they were in deep shit this time. Last time they had been caught tormenting Snape, McGonagall said that they would get more than just a detention and 5 points taken away from them if did anything of the sort again.

"Well, Mr. Potter, Mr. Black, do you have anything to add?" Professor McGonagall asked when Lestrange had finished his story. Sirius and James shook their heads. Professor McGonagall looked down at them, an expression of utmost fury on her face. "I must say I am very disappointed in you boys, I have continually told you that your magical abilities are not to be taken into lightly…"

The lecture seemed to go on forever. Throughout the duration of it, Sirius and James just stood there, looking at there toes. "…Since I warned you not three weeks ago that if you did anything like this again I would give you more than a detention and five points taken away from you I have decided on another punishment. You will each be given a detention, fifty points will be taken away from Gryffindor, and you're banned from going to any Quidditch Games for the duration of the year. If you do anything of this sort again, you will be sent directly to the headmaster."

"Fifty points?" Sirius asked, dumbstruck.

"No more Quidditch Games?" James asked. "But Professor…"

"Don't 'But Professor' me Mr. Potter. I'd suggest that you and Mr. Black run along to breakfast." Professor McGonagall suggested. Sirius and James then went into to the Great Hall, glaring at Lestrange and Snape, who looked rather smug.

When they entered the Great Hall Rachel and Kaitlyn came up to them. "Hey!" Rachel said.

"Hey," James said, running his hand through his hair. "What's up?" he asked casually.

"Kaitlyn and I were thinking…" Rachel began.

James interrupted her, "Wait, Kaitlyn? Thinking?" he asked jovially.

"Okay fine, I thought it would nice if the four of us shared a compartment on the train ride back to Kings Cross." Rachel suggested. "Remus can sit with us too, Marlene will be sitting with Brennan Ryder. He asked her out to the last Quidditch game." Rachel explained.

"You know that sound's like a great idea," James started, "but Remus, Sirius and I are going to stay at school for Christmas. We have a project we need to work on."

"So you can you sit with us on the train?" Kaitlyn asked, confused.

"No, they're not coming on the train" Rachel explained. Then turning to James she said "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you more." James said.

"No, I'll miss you more." Rachel argued, laughing.

"No I will."

"No I will."

"No I will." And before Rachel could say anything back, he kissed her. After they had finished kissing, James looked over to see Sirius pulling Kaitlyn away somewhere.

"Are they gonna go make out?" Rachel asked.

James shrugged. "Dunno. He never has before—Kaitlyn gave him his first kiss."

"What about me? Did I give you your first kiss?" She asked.

"That's personal information." James said, not answering her question.

"Oh my God! I so did!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Let's go eat." James suggested, feeling somewhat embarrassed.

"Good idea!" Rachel said. With that, James grabbed her and they went down to find a place to eat.

Lily was all ready to go the next morning. Lily's parents had written her to tell her not to worry about the attacks—that they and Petunia were all alright. They also told her that it wasn't her fault at all. Towards the beginning of the year, a muggle neighborhood had been attacked that had had no connection with the wizarding world. They also said that they would love to go to Emmie's neighbor's party, but they couldn't. They had previously that they would attend another party that was for adult only. However, they thought that Lily should go.

Lily and Emmie followed Molly Prewett out of the Great Hall and to some horseless carriages. Lily and Emmie piled into one they were followed by two Ravenclaw girls. The first one Lily didn't know the name of; the second one was none other than Palliva Patil. She looked around at Emmie and Lily and smiled friendlily. "Hi!" she said, happily. "I'm Palliva Patil and this is Kerry Mabel." gesturing towards her pretty black friend.

"I'm Lily Evans." Lily said.

"Yeah, I know. Listen, I've been meaning to tell you," Palliva said. "Sorry about what happened with Kyle. I had no idea that he had already asked you. I just wanted to let you know that I didn't go out with him after that."

"That's alright." Lily said. "It's no big deal."

"What do you guys want for Christmas?" Kerry asked.

"This year I asked for a camera," Emmie said, "but my parents are on somewhat of a tight budget this Christmas, so I'm not sure if I'll get one."

"I didn't really know what to ask for, I don't really need anything. I would've asked for clothes, but neither my mum nor my dad have any taste, so I just asked for money. Last year my brother talked me into asking our parents for the joint present of three Quidditch poles so he and, supposedly, I could practice with them. He offered to do my chores for an entire summer. However, when summer came around, he denied ever offering any such thing. Also, he never lets me play with them. What about you Lily?" Palliva said.

"Erm…well, I didn't really ask for anything, my parents always know what to get me. Though I suppose that it will be somewhat harder for them to pick me out anything this year since muggle things don't work at Hogwarts." Lily said, the thought coming into her head for the first time. "What about you…erm…Kerry?" For a split second she had forgotten her name.

"I asked for a broomstick, and I think that I might get a Comet 100. They just came out two weeks ago, in time for the holidays." Kerry explained.

"A broomstick?" Lily asked. "But aren't first years not allowed? Potter and Black got their broomsticks confiscated weeks ago."

"No, I wouldn't use it at school. I'd use it during vacations and over the summer to practice for next year. Then I'd already have used it enough for when I try out for the house team." Kerry said.

"You wanna be on the house team then. What position do you play?" Emmie asked.

"I think that I'll play seeker because Diggory's leaving next year. But I wouldn't mind playing chaser either." Kerry said.

They talked about Quidditch all until their carriage stopped at Hogsmeade Station and boarded the train. As Lily went up the steps onto the train, she thought, 'Wow! I've already been at Hogwarts for half of a year.'

A/N: So there's chapter 9. I really hope that you're enjoying this fic so far! The next chapter will talk about the duration of break. James, Sirius and Remus have a lot of fun over Christmas breaks and Lily has fun seeing her parents again, but a scary experience, scars her for life…

I'm writing this chapter right now and I've only posted through chapter 3, so I haven't read all of the reviews, so I don't know what questions you guys will ask in the future. But here are some answers to some questions you might have:

**What about Peter Pettigrew? **At this point Peter isn't really friends with James, Remus and Sirius—they don't really know each other that well. You'll hear his name mentioned a few times, but that's about it. Peter is better friends with a boy named Taylor Hall right now. However something happens in second year that sort of ruins Peter and Taylor's friendship. Peter starts to hang out with them towards the end of second year, but they don't really become friends until third year.

**Will Lily and James start talking more? **Ummm… Not really in this book. In this book Remus is sort of the person in the middle of them. In future books especially in books three and four, they will talk a lot more.

**When do they find out Remus is a Werewolf? **I have plans for that…

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them as well! I'll try to answer them as best I can, as long as it doesn't ruin anything: ) Even you don't have any questions, if you left a review that'd be great!


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

Lily went onto the train and sat down in an empty compartment followed by Emmie, Palliva and Kerry. They sat down and immediately started talking about their plans for over break.

"I think that my family's going to go to Scotland for a couple of days near the end of break," Palliva said, "But nothing more than that. Then we'll all go over to my grandmother's house for Christmas Eve and I'll get to see all of my cousins. Most of them are French and go to Beauxbatons not Hogwarts."

"Beauxbatons?" Lily asked, confused.

"It's another wizarding school," explained Palliva.

"There are other wizarding schools besides Hogwarts?" Lily asked, astonished.

"Of course there are!" exclaimed Emmie. "Did you think that all the wizards in the world went to Hogwarts? There are only forty students in our year and two hundred eighty in the entire school. There are many more wizards than that in the world. There are hundreds of wizarding schools in the world—Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are the nearest to Hogwarts, but my father once met somebody in the Ministry who went to a school in China."

"Well, I guess I didn't think that every wizard in the world went to Hogwarts. I just hadn't pondered the matter much. I makes sense now though that there would be a lot of other wizarding schools." Lily said.

Just then, the compartment door opened and Rachel and Kaitlyn looked in. "Do you mind if we sit down?"

"Don't you wanna sit with Potter and Black?" Lilly asked, coldly.

"Rachel said they aren't riding the train with us." Kaitlyn said.

"I bet Rachel has to break everything down for you, doesn't she?" Emmie said, and everybody but Rachel and Kaitlyn burst out laughing.

Kaitlyn just shrugged and Rachel said, "So can we sit down or what? Everywhere else is full."

Lily shrugged and moved nearer to Emmie so they would have room to sit down. "So Lily," Kerry went on as if they hadn't been disturbed, "What are you doing over the holidays?"

"Erm…well…nothing much. My sister, Petunia, will be gone in with a friend in Hawaii for the first week, so it'll be just me and my parents." Lily began.

"Ooh, that's gotta suck." Rachel interrupted.

"No, actually I'll rather enjoy it. I have so much fun when my sister's gone, and just thing, she'll be gone for an entire week."

"Yeah, so it'll be just you, with your parents breathing down your neck." Rachel said.

Lily shrugged, "It won't matter much. I never get in trouble much anyways, when Petunia's not there to provoke me."

"Oh…" Rachel said. "Well, I'm going to have quite a lovely Christmas…" With that, she launched in to a monologue that seemed to take hours of everything that she was doing over vacation.

It was Thursday night, the first night of break, and James, Remus and Sirius were starting right away on trying to find their way into their room. They knew that there was another way into that room—there just had to be. They searched all along the perimeter of the room, but found no clues, no trace of a trap door, and the usual door remained locked.

"Why don't we just get give up? Dumbledore's made it impossible to get into." Sirius suggested when he was about tired of looking.

"No. There has to be an easier way in." Remus said. "If there were an emergency and they didn't have a chance to do whatever you had to do to open the regular door, answer the sphinx's riddle and do whatever other crap they had to do, they'd need a quicker way to get there. Besides, you're the one that was all into this before. Now you're just willing to give up?"

"I think that you've got a point Remus, they would need an easier way to get in." James said. "But wouldn't they just apparate in?"

"You can apparate or disapparate on school grounds. It's in Hogwarts a History." Remus explained.

"You've read Hogwarts a History?" James and Sirius asked at the same time, dumbstruck.

"No, Lily has and she told me." Remus said defensively.

"Evans has read Hogwarts a History?" Sirius still looked shocked. "I mean I knew she was weird, but that books got at least two thousand pages."

"Remus, you're probably right about there being another way in here, but it's almost one. I think that we should give up on it tonight." James suggested.

"We'll have to do a lot of careful planning before we come back again." Remus advised. "Otherwise it won't be worth wasting our time for."

Sirius, Remus and James continued to look for another way into the room for the next couple of days. However, they had no luck. It was now Wednesday, Christmas Eve, and Remus still wasn't back from home. Sirius and James hoped that he would return quickly, they were much better off with him helping them. Without Remus, James and Sirius would just wander the castle aimlessly.

Earlier that night they had seen McGonagall entering through the door. They had planned on squeezing in after her. She, however, shut the door right behind her, as though she had suspected something of the type. James and Sirius then retreated upstairs again to search for more clues. The problem was, they didn't know what they were looking for. Remus always seemed to know. Whenever they would ask him what they were looking for, he would just answer "Anything out of the ordinary or mysterious." However, they didn't know what he meant by that.

James and Sirius had given up by now.

"This is useless." Sirius whined.

"I agree." James said.

With that, both of the boys bang their heads on the table in front of them at the same time, Sirius grabbing a hold of the candlestick in front of them and banging it down. After they did that a trapdoor opened beneath them and they rolled down a slide and into the secret room.

Lily's break had gone pretty well so far. She had gone shopping for her Christmas presents in the Diagon Alley the day before. She bought Emmie a necklace with a heart pendant that changed from gold to silver, depending on what you were wearing. She bought Remus some candy—she wasn't sure what else he would want. She bought her mum both a pair of silver earrings and some hair-ties that adjusted to the right size for your hair. Lily's mum had her thick red hair, and they both knew what it was like to have hair-ties either snap or not fit well. She did exactly know what to buy her dad—he was usually hard to shop for. He was one of those people who always bought things for himself when he wanted them. She decided to have her mum take her to Magna Multi Media later to buy a gift certificate for him.

Lily decided to get ready for the party tonight. She was going to wear the dress that she wore for Halloween. Emmie had said to dress in Christmas colors and she figured that white was close enough. Anyways, Christmas red and green contrasted badly with the color of her hair. After that, she put on a pair of reindeer antlers, that way she looked somewhat festive.

Emmie's parents came to pick her up around five. When Emmie came to the door the girls exchanged presents. Emmie had gotten her a pair of silver earrings and a matching necklace that looked really good with what she was wearing—so she decided to wear them. Emmie opened her present from Lily and shrieked in delight. With Emmie's red and white dress and Santa hat, the necklace turned silver. They both said "thank you" to each other and retreated out the door and to the party.

The party was one of those that your parents would have dragged you to. It was mostly filled with parents, talking and catching up. The few kids that were there were just sitting in random chairs, bored out of their minds. Lily, however, found the party rather enjoyable, mostly because Emmie was there. Lily spent about an hour trying to explain to Emmie why muggles cared for television. She was in the middle of explaining some of her favorite shows when they heard a noise from above.

"That's funny," Janelle, the host of the party, said, "I wasn't expecting anyone else. I'll go check and see who it is." Janelle then went up the stairs. Lily and Emmie stood downstairs listening. A flash of green light came from upstairs, they heard a scream and a loud clunk.

When Sirius and James got through the doorway, one look around told them that they should probably get out of sight, and quickly. They dashed behind a statue and into a closet. The room was packed full of many different witches and wizards including Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Agrippa. Dumbledore was standing in the front of the room, waiting for silence.

"You probably are not aware," he began, in a hushed tone, "that there was another attack tonight—the largest attack yet. It was on a muggle house where they were throwing a Holliday party. I also have the grave duty to inform you, that two of our students were there."

A deadly silence fell across the room, and Sirius and James exchanged frightful glances from within the closet.

McGonagall was the first to speak. "Who was it? Were they hurt? Are they going to be okay?"

"The students attending were Emmeline Vance and Lily Evans. As for whether they were hurt or not, I do not know. Dorcas, do you think that you could report on this article for the Daily Profit?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes, I think I can, sir." Said a tall skinny witch with glasses and her honey blond hair pulled back in a tight bun.

"Good. Make sure to investigate every detail, but don't tell the readers too much. We don't want people more worried about these things than they have to be. Just make sure to tell them how to avoid these situations. Also make sure to find out if Miss Vance and Miss Evans are alright." Dumbledore told her.

"Don't worry, I will sir." Dorcas said obediently.

"Good, now that that is settled this meeting is adjourned. You may go now." Dumbledore said to the entire room.

With that everybody got up from the couches and armchairs they were sitting in and filed towards the door. Sirius and James waited until they were all gone, before following suit.

Lily woke up in a small shed outside of Number 9 Swiffstin Lane. It took her a moment to remember were she was and what had happened. Then she had the flashback of the flash of green light, the scream of Janelle, the clunk of her body falling to the floor. Lily still wasn't exactly sure of what had happened—all she knew was that the situation felt uncomfortable, so she and Emmie ran out the back door and into the shed.

Lily opened the shed door and walked outside. She shivered as she looked up and saw a green skull hovering above what used to be the house—now, however, it was a pile of rubble. She walked up and went through the empty door frame. She shrieked when she looked around—there were dead bodies everywhere. She knew that if she and Emmie hadn't left she would be among this lot. Her head started spinning and she lost balance and fell backwards. She flinched, expecting to hit the ground, however, somebody caught her.

A/N: So that's chapter 10! I was going to make it cover the next part too, but it just seemed like the perfect opportunity to leave you guys hanging:P If you guys have any comments or questions, please review. If you don't, please review anyways:)


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

Lily trembled as she felt somebody catching her—she hadn't even noticed anybody else there. Though she was frightened of what she might see, she looked up into the startling blue eyes of Professor Dumbledore. Although his eyes were twinkling, as always, there was a look of worry in his face.

"Miss Evans," he said, "thank goodness you're alright. Where is Miss Vance?"

A thousand questions came into her head: How did he know she was here? What exactly had happened? Why are these people killing innocent muggles? But she resisted asking them, and decided to save them for later. "She's right over there, in that shed." Lily told him, pointing her finger at the tool shed across the lawn. She and I survived the attack okay. When we heard Janelle's scream and saw the flash of green light, we decided we better get out of there. I just came up here to see what had happened and I saw that thing." She explained, pointing to the green skull with the black snake coming out of it's mouth.

"Ahh…yes, the green skull, or the dark mark as it known to some." Dumbledore said, staring up at the mark in the cloudy morning sky.

"Do you…err…think anyone survived, professor?" Lily asked, though scared of what the answer would be.

"I doubt it." Dumbledore said, surprisingly calmly. "Muggles rarely stand a chance around these…err…people."

"What about Emmie's parents, they are a witch and wizard." Lily said.

"Yes they were," Dumbledore said, emphasizing the word were, "but they would have been outnumbered by quite a lot."

Lily sat for a while, trying to take in this information—her best friends in the world's parents were dead. Then a thought struck her—would had caused this malice. If any one knew, it would be Dumbledore. "Excuse me, sir, but do you know who is behind all of these attacks?" she asked.

"Ahh…that I cannot tell you, Miss Evans." Dumbledore said, with a mystical tone in his voice.

"But you know?" Lily asked.

"I have an idea." Dumbledore said with the same air in his tone. "But will you do me a favor?" Lily nodded, willingly. "A tall reporter with blond hair and glasses will be coming here along with some others. Please seek her out, and tell her that I told you to give her this." He said handing her a parcel, wrapped carefully in cloth. "Tell her to open it when she gets back to the office. I will go talk to Miss Vance."

Lily went up to the street next to the house and waited there. It was a good ten minutes before anyone arrived. The first person to approach the house a tall, blond, curly haired witch with rhinestone incrusted glasses. She was holding her note book and an acid-green quill as she approached Lily.

Lily, assuming she was the person that Dumbledore was talking about, she went nearer to her, and gave her the parcel. "Here," she said, thrusting it nearer to her "Dumbledore told me to give this to you."

"Dumbledore?" the person asked, searching Lily's face. "Alright then." She said, tucking the parcel in her crocodile-skinned handbag. "Mind if I ask you a few questions?" She asked. "My name's Rita Skeeter, I'm a reporter for the Daily Profit."

"Sure." Lily said, and she proceeded to answer all of the questions that this young reporter asked her.

"PRESENTS!" Sirius shouted as he woke up to face a large amount of presents at the foot of his bed.

"YES!" James yelled, waking up to see an even larger amount of presents at the end of his bed. James moved down to the end of his bed and opened his first present—it was from his mum and dad. James opened it and exclaimed "Awww…" at the same time he heard an explosion from the bed next to him.

"What?" Sirius asked with his face all black.

"Look what my mum and dad gave me." He said, holding up a book entitled A Guide to Understanding the Minds of Teenage Wizards. "Claim that if I read it, I might see how boys my age are supposed to act, and they'll stop getting letters from McGonagall. Think they were sorta disappointed about how I got into so much trouble that I got fifty points taken away from Gryffindor, two detentions and not banned from all future Quidditch games—at least my mum was. My dad probably didn't care, he got into a lot of shit and stuff when he went to Hogwarts."

"Better then what my parents got me," Sirius said while holding up a pink box with black insides and pointing to his scorched face.

"They sent you a bomb? Why?" James asked.

"Have I not explained to you how bad my parents were?"

"Ermm…not really. You said that they were friends with Snape's family—that's gotta be pretty bad though…"

"That's not the worst of it. Snape looks like a Hufflepuff compared to them. Slytherin is the only acceptable house according to them. They're full of that pure-blood crap—I bet you anything that if they were younger, they'd be right up there putting that green skull thing above peoples' houses. Anyways, I never told them I was a Gryffindor, I'm not stupid, but I bet you anything that Bellatrix did. She went home for Christmas and has such a big mouth that if you stuck a brick in it she'd still keep talking."

"Oh…I'm sorry. So you reckon they won't be very happy with you when you return from the summer holidays?"

"Don't remind me…" and with that, Sirius turned and went on opening his other presents.

James decided to open Sirius present next—dungbombs. "Thanks for the dungbombs!" he said. After that James opened a present from his dad, it was a package of supplies for havoc. It consisted of "Invisible Slippery Solution", dungbombs, obviously, "Filibusters No-Heat Fireworks", stink pellets, and random trick-sweets. One box of cookies would turn you into a pig, and no magic could turn you back, you had to wait for it to wear off.

James opened an envelope next, expecting it to be money from his grandmother or something. I turned out to be a note from Remus that read:

Hey I hope you enjoy your Christmas Present!

-Remus

Go down six sets of stairs

Walk down the stairway

Keep on going straight

Then go into the set of double doors

Go to the back of the room

And look for F TRO

"Have you opened your present from Remus yet?" James asked.

"No, haven't seen it." Sirius said, reading a note from somebody. "Oh, and by the way, thanks for the dungbombs."

"No problem." James shrugged. "Open your present from Remus." He handed Sirius an envelope that looked suspiciously like the one that James had received from Remus.

"So, he wants to find something called F TRO? Sounds sort of weird…but that's Remus for you." Sirius shrugged.

"Don't you get what that room he's talking about?" James asked. "Go down six flights of stairs. We're on the eighth floor, what's on the second floor that we've been trying to avoid the whole year?"

"The Library?" Sirius exclaimed in disgust. "Bloody hell! Remus has got to learn that we're not Evans and we never will be."

"You're right. Let's go find him!" James said, heading for the door. "Wait where is Remus? He didn't return yesterday like he said he would."

"Dunno," Sirius shrugged, "but I still got more presents to open."

James went back to his presents too. He got one more thing from his dad—tickets to every Wasps game that summer. Unlike his mother, his father sympathized with him, claiming that he'd had a teacher like McGonagall when we went to school. There were three tickets for each game, one for his father, one for him, and one for a friend. 'This summer is gonna be great,' he thought.

From his mum, he got some candy and other treats. From his brother, he got some rat treats. 'Why did his parents insist on letting Alan pick out what he wanted to buy for people' James thought. He completely remember his birthday last year. They had been eating out in a restaurant and his brother had bought him a toy man with his shirt off, who sang a song, proclaiming his love for James so that the whole restaurant could hear.

He then opened the last parcel on his bed, it was candy from Rachel. He hit himself hard on the head. How could he have forgotten to buy something for Rachel? "Sirius!" he exclaimed urgently. "I forgot to buy something for Rachel! What should I do?"

Sirius shrugged, "I didn't buy anything for Elizabeth."

"You mean Kaitlyn?"

"I didn't buy anything for her either."

"Do you think that you're really gonna get away with this?"

"Away with what?"

"Going out with Elizabeth and Kaitlyn at the same time?"

"Neither of them are that smart…" he reasoned. "Anyways, have you talked to Elizabeth yet for me?"

"No, and I don't plan to. I don't support it, but I won't stop you. If you want to go out with her you can ask her out yourself." James said, stubbornly.

"You sound like Remus." Sirius said, and when James didn't answer he added "Fine! I'll go ask her myself!" With that he exited out the portrait hole.

Remus came back a while later, with the news that he had been hit by the knight bus and had to stay in bed an extra day. He had bruises all over his body, because he had rolled down a hill after it had hit him. James couldn't help but notice that he looked extremely pale—much more so than usual.

"Did you find my present?" Remus asked, when he came in the door.

"Yeah, yeah—the library, we know. HAHAHA." Sirius said sarcastically.

"Did you really for one second think that we were going to follow that hint thing to the library?" James asked. "Why do you want us to go to the library anyways?"

"Erm…not necessarily to go to the library, it was a scavenger hunt, your presents were at the end." Remus explained.

"Oh…we thought that you were trying to get us to study during Christmas and we're like 'hell no!'" James explained.

"No. Well, anyways, did you get any further on finding out how to get into that room?" Remus asked.

"Oh yeah!" James said excitedly, "We found another entrance!"

"Seriously?" Remus asked.

"Yeah," Sirius said, "you have to do this secret code thing where both James and I bang our heads on the table at the same time."

When James saw the confused look on Remus' face, he said, "We'll show you tonight."

That night, the three boys got under the invisibility cloak and went down they went down three sets of staircases and onto the fifth floor—the floor above the secret room. They then went into the empty classroom and quickly found the table with the candlesticks and the clock on it. James and Sirius threw off the invisibility cloak and stood next to each other, across from the table. They then leaned over and banged their heads hard.

Nothing happened, and they looked at each other, confused. "Why didn't it work?" Sirius asked.

"Think, think." James said to himself, rubbing his temples.

"Damn it, I can't think. My head hurts like hell!" Sirius said angrily.

"Are you sure this is the right table?" Remus asked.

"Yes, positive." James said

"Then are you sure you didn't do anything else last time that you did this time?" Remus asked again. The two other boys sat there, thinking for at least ten minutes. Remus waiting patiently.

"Err…" James said.

"Wait! Last time, I lifted the candlestick up and set it down." Sirius said.

"Okay then, do your little head banging thing again." Remus coached.

"How about you do it." James suggested, rubbing the spot where he had hit his head last time.

"For four main reasons. Number one, I don't want to. Number two, we know it works for you, we don't, however, know if it works for me. Number three, I might not do it right. And number four, your head already hurts, if you hit it again it'll still hurt. If I hit my head it'll start to hurt, and, between the three of us, we will be suffering more pain than necessary." Remus said.

"Fine, I'll do it." James said gruffly, getting next to Sirius. On the count of three, they banged their heads on the table and opened up the trapdoor so that the three boys rolled down the stone slide and into the secret room.

When they got there, they slipped into the closet in time to hear the end of McGonagall's question. "…the mistake, Albus?"

"The evidence was given to the wrong reporter." Dumbledore said gravely. "It'll be all over the profit now.

"Yes, by golly it will." The woman with honey blond hair and glasses said. "Skeeter got the article. And God help us, because that nosy woman will do everything she can to get the scoop on these attacks. Also, she'll probably turn the mask you found into a bombshell or something. She tends to exaggerate. When she was doing a draft on the death of Sally Harms, she blamed the whole thing on St. Mungos. When it didn't have anything to do with the healers there at all. She also claimed that many people have 'disappeared behind those hospital walls.'"

"Damn it, were dead, if Skeeter got the job." said a wizard with black hair and glasses, who James recognized as his father.

James leaned towards Sirius and whispered "That's my dad!" to him. Sirius looked at him with raised eyebrows.

"Not yet, Thomas. This just means that we will have to be more on the alert. These wizards will now know we know more about them than they think. However, how much we do know, he has no idea. We have to act quicker, for my guess is, after the mask is shown to the public, the attacks will pick up and become more serious—they will probably be attacking wizards next. However, we will discuss what to do about that next Thursday."

"What about Miss Vance and Miss Evans? Are they alright?" Professor McGonagall asked, with a worried air to her voice.

"They are fine. Miss Evans was clever enough to realize what was happening and the escaped to a shed in the backdoor." Dumbledore explained.

"Ahh shucks!" Sirius said and Remus elbowed him.

"However, we must all sympathize with Miss Vance. As you may know, her parents were at the party, they died in the attack."

"Were there any other survivors?" Professor Agrippa asked.

"None." Dumbledore said. "However, I must call this meeting of the Order of the Phoenix to an end. We will recommence next Tuesday, just like always."

Lily's Christmas had been alright. Because of her parents' deaths, Emmie had spent the rest of Christmas break with Lily and her family, much to Petunia's dismay. After she returned from Hawaii, she had been even cruder towards Lily then ever. Whenever Lily or Emmie walked into the room, she made a point of saying something mean about magic. Lily didn't care when Petunia did this to her, however, when Petunia was rude to her best friend who's parents just died, Lily found it incredibly rude. It was clear that Petunia enjoyed being an only child and that she wanted Lily to go back to that school, no matter how wretched she thought it was.

Lily, now sitting on the train, stared out the window looking at the fields rushing past them. Emmie was just sitting there, staring at her hands—she had been doing it a lot lately. Lily didn't exactly know what to do, she had never been close enough to anyone before to have been in the position that she needed to comfort. Lily didn't know what to do so she decided to just sit there for the remainder of the train ride and not say anything.

About halfway through the train ride, Molly Prewett came in to sit with them, she told Emmie that she was sorry about what happened. She also told her that it wasn't her fault that her parents died, and that if she had tried to help them, she would've ended up dead too. It was nice to have Molly come in, it was a good break in the long silence.

A/N: There was chapter 11…I hope you liked it!  Sort of depressing, Lily's parents die, but James, Sirius and Remus find out a lot of information. Next chapter you will find the results of the findings of the mask…also you will find out what happens with the whole Kaitlyn + Sirius + Elizabeth thing…when little kids try to have relationships, it never works, I found that out when I was their age sigh

Anyways, please read and review! I really love all your reviews, if you hate my book, think its boring or I made a mistake, PLEASE tell me!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

Winter was ending, and spring was coming. Hogwarts got it's last sheet of snow on one March afternoon. James, Sirius and Remus decided to say "farewell" to the snowy weather by thrusting snowballs at anyone who came out the castle doors. When Lily came out the doors, and Remus wasn't looking, James charmed five snowballs to follow her and hit her on the head, then quickly rebuild themselves. Having about had it with their playful pranks, she froze his robes and then melted all the snowballs that were following her.

Feeling quite proud of herself, she turned and went on to Hagrid's hut as though nothing had happened. When she knocked on the door, she heard the bark of fang and then thud of footsteps approaching the door. When he opened the door, Hagrid's bearded face broke until a smile—well, at least Lily thought it did, his eyes were twinkling anyways. Lily took this as a sign of welcome and came in through the door.

"So, how yer been?" Hagrid asked as she walked inside.

"Good…err…okay," Lily answered honestly. Ever since Lily had had returned from Christmas break, she had been pretty lonesome. Emmie had been pretty sulky and Remus had been hanging out with Black and Potter more than ever.

"Is there any thing you want to talk about? Don't worry, you can tell me anything you want." Hagrid said reassuringly, sitting down across from her.

"Dunno, not much to talk about—not much been going on." Lily shrugged.

"You're lives been pretty dull, ehh?" Hagrid asked.

"Yeah, ever since Emmie's parents died she's been pretty secluded, and Remus hasn't really hung out with me much since Christmas. He's been with Potter and Black a lot." Lily said thoughtfully.

"I'm sorry, do yeh…err…want some tea—I could make some biscuits fer yeh too." Hagrid offered.

"I'm fine Hagrid. I'm not really that hungry right now, but could I stay here and talk with you until Astronomy?" Lily asked, not wanting to pretend to enjoy Hagrid's tea biscuits.

"Sure, that's fine." Hagrid said.

"We're dead. McGowan, the editor, has given all future reports on attacks to Skeeter. He claims that Skeeter's version of events is 'much more informative' than mine. As if, that woman will go out on a limb to land a story. The woman isn't even a good writer!" Dorcas exclaimed when Dumbledore declared the meeting in session.

An article had com

"I know, I've heard Dorcas." Dumbledore coaxed, "All that you can do is stay with the profit and try to edit Skeeter's articles—hopefully you can change them so that they relay less information to the public. Also, present some information to Fudge that Skeeter doesn't have, make him want give the articles back to you…"

"Then duck-tape Skeeter and stuff her in a closet." A grungy looking man said jovially.

"Shut up, Dung." Moody said.

"Now, now, that's enough. Anyways—the first thing on our agenda for today is to make sure that the entire order is here." Dumbledore said, looking down at a piece of paper attached to a clipboard.

"Alastor Moody"

"Hmph…" Moody grunted.

"Benjy Fenwick"

"Here!" came the squeaky voice of a short young-looking wizard from the back of the room.

"Caradoc Dearborn"

A middle-aged man with a short brown beard raised his hand up a little.

"Rubeus Hagrid"

No answer.

"Rubeus?" Dumbledore asked, looking around the room.

"I don't think he's here." Benjy Fenwick said, standing up and looking around.

"Thank you Mr. Obvious," Sirius whispered to James, who snickered. The three boys were sitting in their usual closet in the secret room, watching as the meeting proceeded. This meeting had been a boring one, and they could tell that it was going to stay that way. If something important had happened, they would've discussed it at the beginning—they had never taken role before. However, the three boys couldn't get out of the closet without anybody noticing.

"Hmmm…Well no worries, he probably just had some duties to tend to."

"Aberforth Dumbledore."

"Isn't his name Albus?" James asked.

"Shhh…yes, of course his name's Albus." Remus whispered back.

"Maybe he has two names" Sirius shrugged.

"Of course not. Firstly, why would Dumbledore call himself for role? Number two, if he was calling himself, he'd acknowledge his own presence and move on—look at him he's looking around." Remus said, pointedly.

"Well they always said that he was a little mad" Sirius said with a suggestive tone in his voice.

Remus was about to say something when Moody started talking—well, growling more-like. "Dumbledore, your brother's never going to show. He's too caught up with his school in America to worry about our problems in England. The only thing that's going to get his ass over here is if these wizards pose a threat to the entire world."

"But he needs to get his act together—by the time these people pose a threat to the entire world it will be too late." Dumbledore said shaking his head. "Dorcas Meadows"

"You know I'm here, Dumbledore." said the reporter sulkily.

"Dedalus Diggle" Dumbledore called, ignoring Dorcas' comment.

"Here!" shouted the voice of someone that James couldn't see from the back of the room.

"Hestia Jones"

"Yeah, yeah," said a brown-haired witch, putting her book down.

"Were you reading?" asked a skinny witch wearing a green dress and a hat with a bird on it.

"Well, you have to admit that we aren't discussing the most…err…pressing topics today." Hestia said, blushing. "Sorry, Albus," she added, looking up at Dumbledore.

"That's quite alright, Hestia," Dumbledore said. "Thomas Potter"

"Here," came the familiar voice of James' father.

"Elizabeth Potter"

'WOW!' James thought, 'My mother's in the order too?'

"Erm…she's at St. Mungos." Hestia Jones said. "This morning somebody came in green and with leaves instead of hair. Ooze was coming out of their ears—they're not sure what happened."

"Okay. Mundungus Fletcher" Dumbledore continued

The only answer was a sleepy "no…peppermint…moron…"

"DUNG! WAKE UP!" Elphias Dodge shouted. The grungy-looking man did not, however, stir. A man who looked as though he had recently left Hogwarts picked up the nearest book and hit him on the head with it.

"What?...where's the cauldron?" Dung asked, looking around.

"Well…err…he's with us physically…" the man with the ponytail said.

The three boys stifled their laughter, and, through the crack in the wall, saw many people in the order trying to do the same.

Dumbledore chuckled a little, and then continued with the list. "Robert Dawlish"

"Here" Said an older looking wizard whom James swore he had seen before.

"Yanci Hess"

"Yeah, yeah" said a witch in her mid-twenties, wearing an eye-patch.

"Griselda Marchbanks"

"Hello" Said an elderly witch pleasantly

"And last, but not least—Amid Williamson."

"I believe he's made his presence known," said Dung, glaring at Amid.

"Next thing on the Agenda—Elphias, do you think that we will have any support from the ministry?" Dumbledore asked.

"Erm…I don't think so at the moment, sir." The young wizard said. "Millicent Bagnold hasn't showed much interest with these attacks—left them to others mostly. I've tried to notify her of the importance of them, but she doesn't listen to her Junior Assistant much. I'm looking for a promotion—Tremors is bound to retire soon."

"Ahhh…we don't need the support of the ministry anyways. Although I wouldn't mind it if they paid a little more attention to those masked guys and a little less to us people who are only stealing God damn cauldrons."

"On the contrary Dung," Thomas started, "The aid of the ministry would prove very helpful to the order. They could provide Aurors that aren't in the order, and they have sources that we don't. Also, they don't have to act in secrecy."

"Whether we having the ministry on our side is helpful or not is not relevant. We don't have their backing and that's that. The next, and final topic, is recruiting more people into the order." Dumbledore continued down his agenda.

"Err…from the ministry? I doubt we'd get much of a turnout. Most of them are most concerned with their day to day lives to want to get 'mixed up' in this." Elphias said, simply.

"What about Crouch? He's always been one to want to take action." Dedalus asked.

"Crouch? Nah!" Moody growled. "He pain in the ass to work with—he'd want to be in control."

"I'm not talking about people from the ministry, I'm talking about recruiting students into the order. Of course they would have to be in 6th or 7th year." Dumbledore clarified.

"What about Molly Prewett?" Professor McGonagall suggested. "She's a good student and is very reliable. She also stated when I asked her what profession she wanted to pursue that she wanted to do something worthwhile."

"Yes. You're right Minerva; I'll talk to Molly tomorrow," Dumbledore said, scribbling the name 'Molly Prewett' down on his sheet of paper.

"Well, Arthur Weasley has a lot of courage." Professor Agrippa said.

"Yeah, he does." Elphias agreed. "He went up and personally asked me make a law on enchanting muggle objects. It seemed like a good idea to me, but Millicent Bagnold didn't seem to show much interest in it."

"But that's just it, he wants to go into Muggle Relations" Caradoc said. "How do Muggle Relations have to do with what the order's doing right now? He probably wouldn't be interested."

"How does making broomsticks have to do with what were doing right now?" Benjy asked rhetorically. "Anyways, talk to him Albus. Just see if he's interested."

"Kingsley Shakleboltt's a good man—wants to be an Auror. I talked to him last week." Moody said in his usual growl.

Dumbledore then proceeded to write Kingsley's and Arthur's names down on the sheet. "Do we have any other suggestions?"

"Sturgis Podmore." Hestia suggested.

"Bobby Carlton and Edgar Bones are in 6th year this year." Thomas said. "They both want to work for the ministry and they're pretty good duelers. I think that they could be useful to the order. Also Bobby Carlton is the top of his class and possesses all the qualities needed to become one of the ministries top Aurors."

"It's settled then. I'll talk to Molly, Arthur, Kingsley, Edgar, Bobby and Sturgis tomorrow. This meeting is now adjourned," Dumbledore said, and leaving the room before anyone else did.

Most of the people followed Dumbledore out, but a couple of people stayed in the room and continued to talk about what had happened. Dorcas was still complaining about the Skeeter woman and James' father was commenting on the fact that Dung didn't bring anything to the order. After what seemed like 3 hours of useless chatter, the last people left the building and Sirius, James and Remus followed as quickly as they could. James didn't help but noticing that Remus looked a little pale.

"You alright, mate?" He asked with a concerned look on his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Remus replied vaguely. "What time is it?"

James looked down at his watch, "10:45" he replied.

"Oh shoot!" Remus said, and with that, he sprinted in the opposite direction of the Gryffindor Common Room and to the nearest staircase.

"Where're you going?" Sirius shouted after him.

"My mums sick and if I don't hurry, I'm going to miss the train to go see her!" he called back.

"Hmm…I hope his mums okay." Sirius said.

"Dunno, he seemed pretty worried. He was all pale and shit," James said.

"Let's go grab our lunar charts and head to astronomy." Sirius suggested.

Emmie finally seemed to be overcoming her parents' deaths. In fact, she was acting quite naturally after Professor Scardsdale let them out of class. "I wonder where Remus was today. I haven't seen much of him lately." Emmie said thoughtfully.

Lily was about to tell her it was because she had been acting fairly sulkily, but thought better of it. "Yeah, I heard Professor McGonagall telling Professor Scardsdale that he was sick before class today. I wonder wh…"

But James cut her off "What do you mean sick? He told us that he was visiting his sick mum."

"Dunno." Lily shrugged, not that interested in talking to James and Sirius. "Maybe he didn't want you to know that he was sick. Maybe he was afraid that you'd think him weak and you'd treat him like you treated everyone else."

"He seemed perfectly fine earlier." Sirius shrugged, ignoring Lily's comment.

"All I know is what I heard McGonagall say—don't badger me for information." Lily said.

"But we want to know what happened." Sirius said in a whiney tone.

"Then why don't you go ask Professor McGonagall?" Emmie mimicked his voice.

"Good idea Vance, I think we will." James said. James started walking off to McGonagall's office. "What are you doing, stalkers?" James added to Lily and Emmie, who were following them.

"You're not the only ones who are concerned about Remus." Lily said simply.

"Well were sure the only ones acting like it." Sirius scoffed.

The four soon found her on the fourth floor, talking to a man that Sirius and James recognized as Dung. When she saw them, her face contracted. "What in the devils name are you four doing out this late?" she asked.

"We want to know where Remus is." James said simply.

"He's sick." Professor McGonagall replied.

"With what?" Sirius asked, "He seemed perfectly fine when we talked to him earlier."

"Err…" Professor McGonagall seemed at a loss.

"He's didn't his but re-inflated." Dung said, wearing his torn robes and looking as grungy as ever.

"WHAT?" Sirius, Lily, Emmie and James asked at the same time.

Professor McGonagall gave Dung a questioning look that none of the students could see. They were all staring, dumbstruck, at the grungy wizard.

"Yes, he has a rare disease called…err…Glutonicism that causes him to loose blood in his…err…buttocks." Professor McGonagall stuttered.

As soon as she said these words, James and Sirius burst out laughing. Lily, however, gave them strained looks and turned to Professor McGonagall. "Will he be okay? Is it serious?" She asked nervously.

"He'll be fine, he just needs some rest. It happens every month around this time." Professor McGonagall reassured her. "I think that the four of you should go to bed now."

The four students turned and headed back up to their common room in complete silence. After a while, Emmie finally spoke, "I wonder why Remus never told us about his problem before."

"Because he knew Bevis and Butthead over here would react the way they did." Lily said, as though it were obvious. "That was really rude of you, you know."

"Is she bugging you?" James muttered to Sirius.

"Yeah," Sirius whispered back. "Think we should curse her?"

"Duh!" James said, and before anyone made another move James bound both Lily's and Emmie's legs together. He and Sirius then sprinted up to the common room.

The next night, Lily, Emmie, James and Sirius stood in the library, waiting for Remus to return. After what seemed like forever, Remus came through the doors and headed straight for where they were sitting.

"Hi!" he said jovially. "McGonagall told me that you guys would be in here waiting for me."

"Why didn't you tell us about your problem?" James asked.

"What? You know?" Remus asked, becoming pale. All four of them nodded. "Who told you?"

"McGonagall," James said flatly, though Sirius could tell that he was trying not to laugh.

"What…McGonagall…she wasn't supposed to…she said she wouldn't…" Remus stuttered.

"What big-head means to say is that, this other guy who McGonagall was talking with accidentally let it slip." Lily said, "But it's okay Remus, it's no big deal."

"No big deal! Of course it's a big deal!" Remus said loudly. "You know, I would understand if never talked to me ever again." Remus said quietly.

"Why would we not talk to you just because you had Glutonicism?" Emmie asked.

"What…" Remus began, but Sirius cut him off.

"Yeah, just because you have to get your but inflated every month doesn't mean we won't talk to you ever again. I mean, it's funny as hell, yes, but…"

"WHAT? Who told you I was getting my but inflated?" Remus asked, confused.

"Some grungy wizard who was…" Lily began.

"Dung," James interrupted.

"You actually believe what Dung said? DUNG?" Remus asked and James, Sirius, Lily and Emmie nodded. "WELL FOR YOUR INFORMATION I'M NOT GETTING MY BUT INFLATED EVERY MONTH! FOR YOUR INFORMATION I'M A FREAKING WEREWOLF! YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT A BLOODY HALF-BREED!" He added, seeing the shocked looks on their faces. He decided to get it over with loudly and quickly. He didn't mind that the whole library heard. News traveled fast around Hogwarts so they would soon know anyways. He figured that he better go pack up his stuff, parents would surely not want their students going to school with a werewolf. Dumbledore was crazy for letting him go to Hogwarts in the first place.

The four first years just sat there for a moment in shock. They couldn't believe that Remus was a werewolf. But as Lily sat there, thinking, she realized that all the pieces fit together—Remus was always "sick" during the full moon and he always came back pale and bruised. She had read a book on werewolves a couple of weeks ago and it all seemed to make sense. After a couple of seconds, James and Sirius ran out of the library to find Remus. Lily and Emmie just sat there until Emmie finally spoke. "I had no idea that he was a…werewolf."

"Yeah," Lily said, "but now that he's said it, it makes perfect sense. Firstly, the whole Glutonicism was completely ridiculous. And also, I mean he was always gone on every full moon and he always came back looking cut, pale and bruised. The book I read a few weeks ago said that if werewolves can't find any other creature to bite, they'll actually bite themselves, and of course the bites have no affect from them. I mean, they're already werewolves."

"I feel so bad for him." Emmie sighed.

"I think we should talk to him later—tell him we don't mind him being a werewolf." Lily said. When Emmie made no reply, she added "We don't, do we?"

"I dunno," Emmie shrugged, "all my life, I've been accustom to the fact that half-breeds are filthy and dangerous and that I should stay away from them. It's just something that comes naturally when you grow up in the pure-blood world."

"You actually believe all that crap? Just because you grew up in the pure-blood world doesn't mean you have to act exactly how your expected to act." Lily asked, surprised to even be having this conversation.

"Lily, you don't know what it's like to grow up in a pure-blood household. My parents would be furious with me if they found I had become friends with a muggle-born. Let's just say I'd even talked to a werewolf, let alone become friends with him. It's an unwritten law in our culture that half-breeds are untrustworthy and disgusting beings." Emmie explained.

"What makes you think that? I mean, look at Dumbledore—he let Remus in to the school. I bet you that no other headmaster would've done that." Lily asked, pointedly.

"I'm not Dumbledore—if I was a powerful 150-year-old wizard than maybe I'd consider defying my parents' wishes." Emmie said.

"Who's stopping you from defying your parents' wishes? I mean, for God's sake girl, your parents are DEAD!" As soon as Lily said those words, she wished she could suck them back in. The look on Emmie's face was somewhere between shock, sadness and anger. Without saying another word, Emmie got up and left the Library. Lily sat there for ten minutes, staring at the same page in her History of Magic book before deciding it was useless, slamming it shut, and leaving the library.

As she was walking towards the Gryffindor common room, she heard a familiar meow from behind the corner. She looked down at her watch—it was 8:56 and she was out almost an hour after curfew. She saw a nearby broom closet and quickly learned that it was occupied. Sirius and a girl whom Lily recognized as a Ravenclaw were in there—making out.

"What do you want Evans?" Sirius asked, breaking apart from the girl long enough to get the words out.

"Well firstly you might want to shut up; Mrs. Norris is right around the corner." Lily whispered.

"Damn Dumbledore for buying Filch that stupid cat for Christmas." Sirius swore under his breath.

"Also, what are you doing here, with her?" Lily asked, gesturing toward the blonde girl—who wasn't Sirius' girlfriend.

"Evans, I don't think that's any of your business." Sirius said. "Now get out before I make you get out!" Sirius warned, taking his wand out of his robe pocket.

Up in the girls' dormitory, Lily spotted Marlene talking to Casey Volley and motioned for her to come over. Marlene looked annoyed, but she slouched over anyways. "What do you want Evans?" she asked.

"I need to talk to you." Lily said.

"Sure."

"No, I need to talk to you alone," Lily clarified.

"Why?" Marlene asked.

"Fine if you don't want to know the information I have for you, I just won't tell you." Lily said annoyed, and she walked out of the dormitory.

Marlene, now interested, followed her to the staircase. "Fine Evans, you've got my attention. Now spill it." She said. "This better be good," she muttered.

"I was walking up to the dormitory when I heard Mrs. Norris. I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 8:56. And I thought 'oh shoot I didn't even realize…'"

"Cut to the chase, Evans" she interrupted

"Well I went into the nearest broom closet and saw Sirius in it with a girl—only she wasn't Kaitlyn…"

"Elizabeth Rapp, yeah," Marlene shrugged; she didn't seem surprised at all. "He's been seeing her ever since Christmas. Or so Rachel and I think."

"They were making out."

"WHAT? Sirius never made out with Kaitlyn before. I've got to tell Rachel!" And with that, she ran off to God knows where.

The morning Owl Post came as usual, and James was surprised to see that he had a package—his parents usually sent him things on Mondays. He opened it and decided to read the letter first.

Dear James (and Sirius because you're always nearby)

You may be wondering why you're receiving a letter from me. All I can say is open the package it will explain it all—I just wanted to thank you for the other night.

Yours,

Lily Evans

James proceeded to eagerly open the package, not really wondering why Lily would've sent him a present. When he opened the parcel, he was surprised to find gooey stuff that burned his skin. Sirius stood their watching. "ARGHHHH! What is this crap, Evans?" James shrieked.

"Undiluted Bubotuber puss," Lily replied smugly.

"Where the hell did you get it?" Sirius asked.

"You know Molly Prewett?" Lily asked. "Well her brother Gideon is in 4th year and they had to squeeze it out of the Bubotubers in Herbology. I asked him if he could get some for me and so he nicked it" Lily explained, shrugging.

"Get the hell away from me!" James said, pushing her angrily.

"OH MY GOD! POTTER! Look what you did to my robes!" Lily shrieked.

"Holy shit, Evans! Look what you did to my hands!" James said, holding out his hands for Lily to see. Lily didn't respond, instead she just stalked off.

"I could kill her," James muttered sitting back down, next to Sirius.

"Yeah, Evans is a bitch." Sirius agreed. "That puss stuff got all over my Transfiguration book!"

"Not like you're ever gonna open it, anyways." James shrugged. "I'm gonna go see Madame Pomfrey, see what she can do about this puss crap." James added grimly.

"You know, if James wasn't my mate, I'd say that girl was brilliant." Sirius said to Peter Pettigrew who was sitting next to him after James was out of earshot. The boy immediately broke out into girly giggles. After he was done laughing his head off, Kaitlyn came over to where Sirius was sitting.

"Hey Kaitlyn, fancy seeing you on this fine morning," Sirius said casually, looking up at her.

"Shut it Black." Rachel said, an annoyed look on her face.

"Sirius Black!" Kaitlyn began, reading off a sheet of paper. "What the hell were you doing in a broom closet with another girl? You are a stupid and…err…" Kaitlyn stumbled, evidentially loosing her place, "inconsiderate bastard. We are officially over and I hope you learned something from your…err…Marlene, what the hell does 'crud' mean?"

"It's not curd, it's crude—and it means 'extremely rude'" Marlene explained.

"Oh! Err…I hope you learned something from your crude action. Slap him in the face!...oh…whoops!" Kaitlyn blushed and then proceeded to slap Sirius in the face—harder than he would've expected from her. She left with Marlene and Rachel following behind her.

Almost immediately after Kaitlyn had left, Elizabeth came over from the Ravenclaw table and slapped Sirius as well. "Who's she?" she asked, anger seeping throughout her face.

Sirius didn't know what to say, so he just shrugged. This was not evidentially the best choice on his part, because it resulted in Sirius being slapped again before leaving the Great Hall.

Sirius looked around to see everyone in the Great Hall staring at him. "Okay! The show's over! You can all go back to your food now!" He yelled so that the whole hall could hear him. He then proceeded to slam his head down on the table. He sensed someone approaching behind him. He lifted his head and turned to see James behind him, with bandages wrapped thickly around him hands.

"Taylor Hall just told me what happened! Told ya you shouldn't have gotten yourself into this!" James said smugly.

Sirius didn't respond, he just slammed his head down on the table again.

A/N: Okay, there's chapter 12. I think that that was the longest chapter I've ever written—9 whole pages:-) Please tell me what you think! A lot happened in this chapter—tell me what you think of this chapter's events.

PLEASE REVIEW:-)


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

After what seemed like a preternaturally long winter, the sun was finally coming out at Hogwarts. It made the newly blossomed flowers look prettier than ever. On one mid-April day, Lily was walking on the grounds alone. She and Emmie still hadn't made up after that day of fighting over what Remus was.

She almost wished that she hadn't stuck up for Remus, because she wasn't feeling well-rewarded for aiding him. Remus had been closer than ever to James and Sirius ever since the werewolf incident and Emmie didn't seem to be feeling to shabby either. Ever since hers and Lily's fight, she had been hanging out with Palliva Patil and Kerry Mabel. She didn't seem to miss Lily at all—she never even looked at her.

Lily decided to sit and read a book that she had recently picked up from the Library. It was a biography on Dumbledore and she was eager to read about what her headmaster had achieved. How much reading she would acomplish, however, she didn't know, because, at the precise moment she opened her book, as if on cue, James, Sirius and Remus came storming out of the castle.

"So, Moony, what do you think?" Sirius asked, in his usually loud voice. "Do you think I should ask her out?"

Ever since, Sirius and James had found out what Remus was they had began to call him Moony. Lily thought that it would only advertise his disease, but Remus didn't seem to mind, so she left the matter alone.

"I think that you were just dumped by two girls, on the same day and that you won't be having much luck with Theresa right now." Remus advised.

"Yeah, but that wasn't my fault. Somebody must have told Kaitlyn about Elizabeth—she couldn't have figured it out by herself." He said.

Lily wondered who would do that. 'Oh yeah,' she thought. 'That was me wasn't it?' If it was anyone other than Sirius, or perhaps James, she would have felt bad about breaking them up. But given the fact that Sirius and James hadn't left her alone ever since the Bubotuber puss incident, she didn't feel the least bit sorry for him.

"Oh well, she deserved to find out." Remus said.

"What…no she didn't…James…back me up" Sirius stuttered.

"Sorry, mate but I'm gonna have to stick with Remus on this one." James said, simply. "You didn't seriously think that you could get away dating two girls all throughout our schooling—they were bound to find out at some point."

Sirius just shrugged for an answer. He was about to say something, but stopped as Theresa Winterson and Alice Carlton came out through the oak front doors.

"Oy, Theresa!" Sirius called.

"Yeah Black?"

"You wanna go out with me?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"Can you get me to Hogsmeade this weekend?" Theresa asked.

"Sure!" Sirius said, without thinking.

"Alright then," Theresa said, clearly surprised. "I'll meet you on Saturday. Does six o'clock sound alright?"

"Yeah sure," Sirius shrugged. "See?" he said, turning to James and Remus. "Piece of cake."

"One problem," Remus pointed.

"What?" Sirius asked

"How are you going to get her to Hogsmeade?" Remus asked. "It's not Hogsmeade weekend, AND you're a first year."

"Oh shit…"

Lily got up, laughed a little, and headed back up to the castle. She couldn't imagine how Sirius was going to get himself out of this one.

"Although we must mourn the loss of the all-muggle Thomas family, I am happy to announce that I have found yet another clue in what used to be their house. It is a checklist of the family's that they are planning to kill in the future, some of them muggle. Most of them are muggle families, but some of them are homes of witches and wizards." Dumbledore announced at the weekly meeting.

Dumbledore then passed the note around and James was able to catch a glimpse of it. It read:

Rudder: No. 1 Rudder Way

Thomas: No. 5 Tutter Lane

Mayne: No. 14 Utick Road

Parnell: No. 3 Kacker Street

Evans: No. 5 Privit Drive

Anderson: No. 10 Gilbert Lane

Hall: No. 8 Addison Avenue

James winced—both Lily's family and Taylor's family were on that list. Not only were they both in his year, but they were both in his house. And although he disliked Lily, he'd still feel bad if she died. 'Oh well,' he thought. 'Dumbledore's found the list now—everything will be alright.'

Once everybody had seen the list, Dumbledore spoke up again. "We must protect these families as best we can. I am not sure as to whether this list is for one particular man or the whole lot of them. But this is all the information we have, and it is therefore all we can deal with. Alastor and Thomas, can you put together a plan for the protection of these family's?"

"Yes sir!" came the voice of James' father, while Moody just grunted.

"Thank you. I had nothing else to discuss with you today. Does anyone have any other points of discussion?" Dumbledore asked the crowd.

"Yeah," Dung said.

James was surprised; this was the first time he had seen Dung stay awake during a meeting, let alone speak voluntarily.

"I've heard a word on the streets that might interest you, Dumbledore. Rumor has it that these people are called 'Death Eaters.' They are lead by one who they either call 'master' or 'the Dark Lord.' His true name is not spoken." Dung recited in a lazy way which made the interesting news sound boring.

"Hmm…Death Eaters…Dark Lord…interesting…" Dumbledore thought aloud while scribbling something on his piece of parchment.

Just then, when the entire order was silent, James tripped and fell backwards. Sirius and Remus caught him before he hit the stone floor, but he still made a lot of noise.

"What was that?" Elizabeth Potter asked, sitting up suddenly.

The three boys heard footsteps heading toward the door.

"Damn it…" James muttered.

"Quick, get under the invisibility cloak!" Remus ordered—being the first person to come to his senses, as usual. James threw the invisibility cloak over the three boys and they hid under it as the closet door swung open it.

When he saw no one in sight, Thomas Potter had a growing suspicion in his mind, and he decided to cover for his son before Moody blasted the closet apart. "Look!" he said, pointing to the floor of the closet. "That box must've fallen from the shelf."

"Oh, okay." Benjy Fenwick said, shrugging.

"Is that all, Dumbledore?" Dung asked, "Because I have some business to attend to."

"I never knew that stealing cauldrons was business." Caradoc Dearborn muttered.

"Yeah, I have some work to do at the ministry." Elphias Dodge added.

"Very well, you may all go." Dumbledore said, still staring suspiciously at the closet. Thomas, however, ushered him off before he had time to investigate further.

The boys went up to the common room and began talking about the recent events during the order's meeting.

"That was lucky." Remus stated. "If your dad hadn't been there, I don't know where we'd be right now."

"My dad?" James asked, confused. "What did he do?"

"Are you blind?" Remus asked rhetorically. "He basically saved us from detention, or worse…"

"But did you hear what Dung said about the Death Eaters?" Sirius asked, clearly thinking that this was more important.

"Yeah, and I thought he'd never be of any use to the order." James said.

"Yeah, I wonder why they call themselves 'Death Eaters' and I wonder who their master is. I'm glad we listened in on this one." Sirius concluded.

"I thought you discouraged eavesdropping." Lily said, coming up behind him.

"I don't think you should be talking." James retorted.

"Try keeping your voices down then." Lily scoffed.

"Come off it Evans, we weren't that loud." Sirius said, in his abnormally loud voice.

"Weren't that loud?" Lily asked, annoyed. "I was trying to read and the volume of your voices broke my concentration.

"Well I'm sorry we distracted you, Evans." James said sarcastically. "Now go back to your petty book."

"I would Potter, but your girlfriend's coming and she giggles so loudly when she's around you that I wouldn't be able to concentrate in the library." Lily said, gesturing towards Rachel, who was coming downstairs.

Lily then walked past a smirking Rachel and up to the girl's dormitory to get some sleep.

A/N: There's chapter number 13. Sorry it was kind of short, well, okay, really short. But the last one was really long and the next one will be longer. I promise. Even though it was kind of short and not much happened, I would really enjoy it if you reviewed. I love hearing what you guys think of my story.

Jewels5: The Order plays a big role in the plot line and is therefore going to come up a lot in the future. Since the Daily Profit isn't telling very much, and they aren't getting their information on what's happening from anywhere else. The people in the Order are going to act like characters in the books. Some of them you've met before, some of them you've heard mention of in the books, and some of them I made up:-) As an author, I try to tell the reader the important parts of the story, and since the order's meetings are often important to the plot line, I tend to include them. The Order of the Phoenix is as much of my story as anything else is. Thanks for your review:-)


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

Sirius had never felt happier after a detention. When rearranging Professor Agrippa's desk, after throwing a dungbomb at it during Defense against the Dark Arts, he found something that made his life ten times better. After opening one of her desk drawers, he had found a bunch of maps of passageways in Hogwarts. Six of them led to Hogsmeade and two of them led to the kitchens.

'James in gonna flip when he sees this!' he thought. 'What if Professor Agrippa finds out?' He asked himself, in a voice quite unlike his own. 'Nah!' he answered, sounding more like himself. 'She's go so much crap in here that she wouldn't notice if I took Evans paper out of the stack of ungraded assignments due last week—hey! That's not a bad idea!'

Sirius laughed at his own genius, but didn't take Lily's paper. Yes, he was reckless, but not _that_ mean. Instead, he went up to the Gryffindor Common Room to show James the maps he had found. It looked like he was going to be able to take Theresa out after all!

When he got up there, however, he decided to hold off on telling James about his new discover. James looked miserable, not that that would've stopped him. What stopped him was the fact that Remus sent him a look that clearly stated, 'speak, and I'll kill you.'

'What's wrong?' he mouthed at Remus.

'Rachel broke up with him.'

'Oh…'

Remus then mouthed something long that Sirius couldn't read.

'What?' he mouthed back confused.

'I know.' Remus said.

'No!' Sirius corrected, 'What did you say?'

'Oh!' Remus then proceeded to mouth the same long sentence.

'I still don't know what you're saying!'

Remus then wrote something down on a piece of paper, crinkled it up into a ball and threw it to Sirius. James didn't notice Sirius caught it, un-wrinkled it and began to read:

**If James asks you, Rachel was NOT going out with Frank Longbottom before they broke up!**

Rachel's going out with Frank? I thought Alice and Frank were going out.

**They broke up—I think it'll be temporary though. They seem so perfect for each other, you know?**

You sound like a girl Moony! Perfect—blah, blah, blah. Sucks to be James. I have something that'll cheer him up though.

**NO! Wait! Don't give it to him yet! Let me see it first!**

Why? Do you not trust me?

**Quite frankly, no.**

Fine here it is.

Remus opened up the maps and stared at them in awe. He smiled, thinking of all the places they could go with them. He then handed them to James.

"Hey James! I think that Sirius found something that'll cheer you up!"

Lily woke up on May 20th feeling happier than she had felt in a long time. No, it wasn't because she and Emmie had started talking again, and it wasn't because she had suddenly become the most popular girl in Hogwarts. It was because it was her birthday.

As she yawned and stretched, she felt a lump at the end of her bed. She opened her eyes to see a huge stack of presents. Most conspicuous of all was a beautiful brown owl. She saw a note attached. She wondered who the note was from—she didn't know anyone who owned that owl. The note read:

To our dearest Lily,

We hope you enjoy your twelfth birthday, along with your knew owl friend. We haven't picked out a name for him yet, we thought we'd let you decide. He's been living with us since Christmas and he's really quite friendly. You see, we were going to give him to you for Christmas, but with everything going on, we decided to wait until your birthday. Please use him to write home more—we've hardly heard from you at all this year!

Love,

Mom and Dad

Lily immediately felt bad—for although her parents hadn't meant to make her feel guilty, she wished that she had written more to them. She had just completely forgotten with everything that had been going on lately. She decided to thank them for her presents right then, well, after she had named her owl of course.

"What shall I call you?" She asked it.

For answer, the owl just stared up at her with its ebony brown eyes.

"Ebony! What a wonderful idea." Lily exclaimed. "Well Ebony, are you up for a journey?"

Ebony hooted in reply.

Lily quickly began writing:

Dear Mom and Dad,

Thank you so much for your gift. Ebony (my owl) will prove very useful throughout my entire life. Many students at Hogwarts have owls and I have always envied them. Thank you so much!

Also, I'm sorry for not haven written to you much lately. Life at Hogwarts has been rather busy, and I haven't had much free time. I promise to write more once things settle down a bit. Although I may not need to—after ally, I will be coming home soon! I can't wait to see you again!

Love,

Lily

PS: Thank Petunia for her present as well and wish her a "Happy Birthday" for me.

Lily added the last bit after seeing her sister's small present laying on the top of the pile. She then attached the parchment onto Ebony's leg and opened her window so that she Ebony could fly out of it.

She shrugged and thought she might as well get her sister's present over with first. You know, save the best for last. She read the short not saying "Happy Birthday –Petunia" and then proceeded to open the parcel. She was only a tad disappointed when she saw a one pound ring. Oh well, it had been better than the coat-hanger she had received last year.

Their parents had always made them buy presents for each other on their birthdays, whether they liked it or not. Lily had always bought her sister rather pleasant things. This year, for instance, she had purchased a shirt from a magazine for her that should have arrived a few days ago. Lily had hoped that by giving her the nice present early, it would urge her sister to buy her something a little more special.

'Maybe that's why I got a ring instead of toe-nail clippers.' Lily thought to herself.

Lily opened her next present. It was a box from Hagrid filled with sweets—all of her favorites from Halloween: Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, Chocolate Frogs, and Drouble's Best Chewing Gum. It was so large Lily doubted as to whether she'd ever be able to finish it all.

The next present was from Remus—it was a book on charms. Lily skimmed through it and found it very interesting. It taught technique that Flitwick had never taught them. It also had moving pictures of a hand performing the charm. Although some of the charms were extremely complicated, she loved it all the same.

After Lily opened Remus' present, she noticed one letter left. She opened it up to see a long letter from Emmie, it read:

Dear Lily,

I am sorry for what happened a couple of months ago. Although I can't truthfully tell you that I'm completely over my prejudice, I am working on it. I want you to know that I don't hate Remus—I'm just a little scared. You must understand, by growing up in a pure-blood household, I was taught that werewolves were dangerous creatures and I was never to go near them.

Although I know that Remus is not dangerous, that is when it's not a full-moon, I'm still rather frightened. When I was little, I listened to a Radio Show on the WWN called "Willie the Weary Werewolf." It was about a werewolf who would randomly attack anyone at will. He went from village to village attacking them. I had to sleep with a light on for an entire year after that.

Also, all throughout my childhood, I read articles in the paper about werewolf attacks. Everything around me taught me that werewolves were dangerous creatures and that going near them or fraternizing with them would cause ill-health to me.

It's not easy to come over a prejudice that I have believed to be true my entire life. I may not be able to get over it as quickly as you like, but I wanted you to know, that I'm going to try. I hope that you can accept my apology—I never should of blown up at you.

Yours,

Emmie

Also in the envelope was a gift certificate to a candy shop in Diagon Alley.

As she neared the end of the letter, Lily felt guilty—it wasn't entirely Emmie's fault for what had happened that night. Lily was as much to blame as Emmie for what had happened. She felt badly that Emmie had taken full responsibility for what had happened—she would say her share of apologies at lunch, she decided.

It was a sunny day in mid-May and most students were to be found on the grounds or by the lake. Three studious first years, however, were inside studying for their end of the year exams. The recently reunited group of friends was having a surprisingly good time while practicing charms.

This charms work however, was rather amusing—Lily, Emmie and Remus were charming fruits to do impressions of different things. Remus had charmed an apricot to talk like Snape—he called it "Snape's butt." Lily didn't usually approve when James or Sirius hexed Snape, but Remus was doing in such a jovial way that she let herself laugh. Besides, he wasn't actually hurting Snape, he was just making fun of him.

Next it was Lily's turn. She decided to charm her pineapple to tap dance for them. At the end of the show, Remus and Emmie laughed. They all had to admit; the pineapple was quite good, for being a piece of fruit.

Emmie then proceeded to charm her star-fruit to do front flips. The star-fruit, however, proved not to be such a good gymnast. Emmie did a good job on the charm; the star-fruit just wasn't very aerodynamic.

The first years had just finished their first set of exams and were happy that they had gotten them over with. James and Sirius were proud to be the only first years to have not studied once. Remus hoped that their marks would knock some sense into them. They were both brilliant, Remus knew that they were smarter than him, when they wanted to be, they just didn't try hard.

"Look!" James said, pointing to the bulletin board in the common room, "The exam scores are up!"

"They are?" Remus asked, "Let's go see them!"

The boys got up and headed over to the bulletin board. The people looking at the board quickly moved away—James and Sirius were bound to hex anyone out of their way.

"Lets see." Remus said, "Transfiguration P, CharmsA, History of Magic D, Potions D, Herbology A, Astronomy A, and Defense Against the Dark Arts A."

"Those are your scores Moony?" Sirius asked, astonished. "That's gotta suck!"

"Those are your scores, Sirius." Remus clarified.

"They are? YES!"

"I got…" James began, "Transfiguration O, Charms A, History of Magic D, Potions P, Herbology A, Astronomy E, and Defense Against the Dark Arts E."

"Alright Potter!" Sirius exclaimed "How did you do Moony?"

"Okay," Remus shrugged.

"C'mon tell us!" James pleaded.

"Errrrr… I got…" Remus said, blushing a little. "Transfiguration E, Charms E, History of Magic A, Potions E, Herbology O, Astronomy O, and Defense Against the Dark Arts O."

"Damn it Moony! How do you manage to keep such good grades?" Sirius asked, impressed.

"I actually study." Remus explained.

"Blah! Who needs that? Damn that Kelsey Mitchell sure is hot!" Staring at a pretty fourth year girl.

"Someone's getting over their heartbreak rather quickly" Remus muttered, but James didn't hear him.

"Come off it, mate. She's a third year, she'll never date you." Sirius said.

"Hey! You dated Theresa Winterson."

"We're talking about you, not me." Sirius reminded him

"Shut up." James said.

There first year at Hogwarts was finally over. It was tons of fun, but James felt glad to be going home. He had missed his parents over the past year, and although he had written to them, it wasn't the same as having them around. Also, even though he wouldn't admit it barring an unforgivable curse, he had missed his brother as well. Plus, his brother didn't know that he wasn't allowed to use magic over the summer.

As the train came to a stop, Sirius packed up the exploding Snap cards and Remus put away his book. Before leaving their compartment, the three boys said their good byes. And although they weren't saying their final farewell, it sure felt like a long time before they would see each other again.

"You guys should come over this summer." James suggested, "We have a pool and a Quidditch Pitch—bring your swimming trunks and your broomsticks. It should be fun."

"Yeah," agreed Remus, "You guys can come over to my house too, I mean we don't have a pool or a Quidditch Pitch, but feel free to stop by all the same."

"I'd invite you guys over to my house, but my mum would kill herself—not that I'd mourn or anything." Sirius said.

"C'mon, is your mum really that bad?" Remus asked.

"Hell yeah, and it'll be worse now that I've been sorted into Gryffindor. I'm now officially a 'blood traitor.'" Sirius said glumly.

"Sorry, mate. Feel free to come over any time." James offered.

"I'm gonna hold you on that." Sirius said, holding out his hand. James shook it and the boys proceeded with their customary secret handshake.

After they had finished their handshake, the boys heard a knock on the window. A middle-aged woman with brown hair and glasses looked at James through the window. Elizabeth Potter stared in at the boys, with an expression on her face which clearly stated 'we need to go now.'

With that, James said a final "good-bye" to his two best friends, and left the compartment, wondering what the summer would bring.

A/N: And so finishes Part 1 of the Green Skull. I hope you've been enjoying it so far:-) If you have any suggestions or ideas, feel free to let me know in your review. I know that that first par could've easily been added on to the last chapter, but, quite honestly, I forgot:-) I mean I knew I wanted that in there, but I forgot to add it on! The next update probably won't be for a while. My guess is in a couple of weeks. :-) I'm sorry!


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: I am SO sorry. It took me a lot longer than I thought it would to get this chapter up. I'm sorry to say that my news isn't any better about the next chapter. I really want to make this story as good as possible, and I'm sorry to say that takes time. I'm really trying to get this done, but I have a lot of things to do right now. Including study for my math final, that's next week!

Chapter 15:

"BOY!"

Sirius jumped as he heard the angry call of a woman from behind him. Sirius settled down quickly after realizing that it was only his mum.

"Yes mum?" Sirius asked joyfully. He wasn't going to let her get to him, not this summer.

"Don't use a tone with me boy!" Analisa Black snarled, "Get your filthy little ass in the car." When Sirius lazily bent down to pick up his trunk, she hurried him by shouting "NOW!" in her booming voice. One thing was for sure, Sirius definitely got his loud voice from her.

When he got into the car, Analisa sped out of the train station before Sirius had closed the door. His mum chose to ignore him the whole way home, and Sirius had to admit that it wasn't that bad. If his mum though she was punishing him, she wasn't. In fact, Sirius was happy about the silence, it gave him time to think.

'She'll probably punish me more harshly when I get home, when my dad's there to help her out.' Sirius though glumly. This was going to be an interesting summer, he thought.

Lily gave Emmie and Remus each one final hug before leaving the platform and going out in front of the station where she was going to meet her parents. After leaving the station, they would head directly for the airport in London. Under normal circumstances, Lily would've been excited that she was going to Germany, but this was a family vacation, and that meant she had to spend time with her sister.

"I'll miss you guys so much over the summer!" Lily whined, after hugging her friends for what felt like the one hundredth time.

"Yeah, I'll miss you too." Remus said, "But that's my mum and I gotta go." He then turned and walked in the direction of a thin woman with sandy blond hair.

"You should come over this summer." Lily suggested.

"Yeah," Emmie agreed, "my grandparents may not let me though—they're kind of strict."

"Oh," Lily sympathized, "I'm sorry."

"That's fine—it's not your fault. I just wish my parents wouldn't have died." Emmie said sadly.

Lily sighed, it seemed that every time she had a conversation with Emmie, the death of Emmie's parents was somehow brought up.

"I'm sorry," Lily managed to say, "but, I'll tell you what, my parents will write to your grandparents, I'm sure that they can work something out. My family loved having you over during Christmas break—well, err, my parents did anyway." Lily said honestly.

"You know, I don't need you to pity me like this." Emmie sobbed angrily.

"I don't pity you!" Lily retorted. "Wherever did you get that idea? I just don't fancy spending my entire summer with my sister!"

Emmie managed to laugh, "Yeah, I don't suppose I would either, no offense or anything."

"None taken. Don't think I don't know how bad she is—I've lived with her for eleven years!" Lily exclaimed.

Emmie and Lily laughed again, when Emmie saw her grandparents, she left Lily and waved goodbye. The sun was setting and Lily decided that it was time to meet her parents and leave for her dreaded vacation.

James got home, put his trunk on his bead and turned to face an eagle owl that he'd never seen before. It was staring at him with a look of dignity on his face, and it impatiently put it's leg out, waiting for James to untie the letter. It was from Sirius:

Hey James,

I was wondering if I could come over to your place for in a couple of days. I don't think my parents will mind—they haven't stopped me from doing anything I want this summer. They've just been ignoring me—personally, I like this form of punishment a lot better than any other one they've tried. This way, I can do whatever I want and they're not putting any restrictions down and getting in my way! So, please get back to me soon. I'm dying over here, my house is BORING!

Thanks!

-Sirius

James laughed, it was just like Sirius to invite himself over to somebody else's house. Oh well, he didn't mind—he wanted to see his best friend.

"Hey mom!" he called, "Can Sirius come over in a couple of days?"

"Ermm…if it's alright with its parents, honey!" his mom called back.

"Yeah, it's fine." James lied.

"Alright then!" his mother agreed.

James quickly wrote back to Sirius:

Sirius-

My mom said that it's fine. Come over as soon as you can, and think of ways to prank my brother on your way! How are you gonna get here? Would your parents drive you? My family's hooked up to the Floo Network, so feel free to floo over here. Our address is No. 10 Godric's Hollow! See ya soon,

James

'This summer is gonna be great!' James thought. 'With Quidditch games every other week and Sirius coming over!'

He then grabbed his broom and went to see if his brother could keep for him. "Hey Alan!" he called.

"What?" Alan called back.

"Can you play keeper for me? I wanna practice for next year!"

"Only if you promise to go easy!"

"What's the point of me practicing then?"

"Don't ask me!" Alan said stubbornly.

"Fine, fine, I'll go easy." James gave in. "But not too easy." He added.

The next day at dinner, the Potter's heard the doorbell ring from their dining room table.

"James, dear, will you get that?" Elizabeth Potter asked.

"But mum, I'm hungry!" James whined.

"Please James." His mum insisted.

"Alright," James said exasperatedly. He got up and went to the door to see Sirius standing there. His robes were ripped and torn, his hair was messed up, and patches of dirt were on his face—he looked like he'd spent a week in the jungle with nothing but the clothes on his back. He was carrying both his broomstick and his trunk.

"What the hell happened to you?" he asked.

"Ermm…I just flew here." Sirius said.

"Did you crash?" James continued.

"Err...yeah, a couple times." Sirius said and James raised his eyebrows. "No! I'm a good flyer. Really I am, it's just hard to fly when your trunk keeps sliding around and shifting the direction that your broomsticks flying."

"What did you bring your trunk for? Planning on staying the summer?" James joked.

"Well…err…if that was okay." Sirius said uncomfortably. "As I said before, my house was hell a boring!" he added quickly.

"No! That's fine—it'd be so cool if you stayed all summer!" James said quickly, "I just didn't think you would want to—hoped you would, but didn't think so!"

"So what do you wanna do?" Sirius asked.

"Do you wanna play Quidditch? My brother bloody stinks at the game—it'd be good to have somebody else keep for me!" James suggested.

"Sure!" Sirius said excitedly.

Sirius and James went up to James' room to get his broomstick. James had forgotten all about dinner—and Sirius' trunk that was sitting by the front door. Before going outside he called "Mum, we're going outside!" quickly before racing Sirius to the pitch.

The summer was nearing an end and Lily was packing her trunk, preparing to return back to school. She absent-mindedly reached over to grab her transfiguration book when she accidentally hit something else. She turned around to see Emmie's eagle owl, Watcher, ruffling his feather indignantly. She took the letter from Watcher, gave him a couple of owl treats and began reading her note.

Dear Lily,

I'm glad that we were able to keep in touch this summer! Staying with my grandparents has been surprisingly interesting. They're not as boring as the seemed when I used to visit them when I was little. Yesterday, for example, we went to see a Wasps game. It was they're last game of the season, since they won't be making it into the finals. It's obvious that the Leprechauns and the Cannons will be going to the cup this year. Anyways, you probably haven't a clue about what I'm talking about.

The real reason I was writing was to tell you that my grandparents and I are going into Diagon Alley to get my school supplies on Friday. It would be great if you could come along with us. That is, if hadn't already gotten yours yet. Post me back as soon as you ask your parents! I can't wait to see you—whether it's at Diagon Alley or on the train!

Lots of love,

Emmie

'This is perfect!' Lily though, she had already been planning on going to Diagon Alley on Friday. This way, she could meet Emmie there and maybe ask her to spend the rest of break with her.

"Hey Petunia!" she said cheerfully to her sister as she walked downstairs to find her parents.

"What do you want?" Petunia asked in the same tone she had used with Lily the entire summer.

"Where's mum and dad." Lily asked, in a less happy way.

"Hell if I know," Petunia shrugged.

"You know, you don't have to be so grouchy." Lily suggested.

"And you don't have to be weird." Petunia retorted, lamely.

"Yeah, I'm gonna go find mum and dad now." Lily said, turning and walking away. As she turned around she saw her dad standing there. "Oh! Hi dad! I was wondering, you know how we were planning to go to Diagon Alley on Friday? Well, Emmie's going to be there on Friday too and we planned to meet up there. After that, could she spend the rest of the holiday with us, until term starts?"

"Can I move in with Mally?" Petunia asked nastily.

Daniel Evans decided to ignore Petunia's question and just answer Lily's. "Erm…sure honey. As long as it's okay with her grandparents."

"Yes daddy, I'm sure it'll be fine! Thank you!" she gave her dad a quick hug and ran upstairs to her room to write to Emmie.

Dear Emmie,

That's perfect! I was planning to go to Diagon Alley on Friday too! It'll be great to see you again. It seems like forever since I've seen you or Remus. Have you been keeping touch with him throughout the summer? I've sent him numerous letters but he's only replied twice. Oh well, he's probably pretty busy. Maybe he's vacationing or something.

I was also wondering if you might want to stay over at my house until term starts. I mean it's probably not as nice as your grandparents house, it does belong to muggles after all.

Yours,

Lily Anne Potter

Summer was nearing to an end and Lily of happily anticipating her return to school. However, she was going to enjoy her final week of vacation as best she could, especially since Emmie was coming over. She had recently written back. Even though a muggle house wasn't nearly as exciting as a wizarding one, she still couldn't wait to have Emmie over.

She also couldn't wait to go to Diagon Alley. She had been away from the Wizarding World for so long, she had almost forgotten what it was like to be a part of it. She loved spending time with her parents, but she just missed the world that she had felt so much more a part of than she had ever in the world that she had grown up in.

Petunia, thank God, was going to her friend's house while Lily and her parents went into London—she didn't want anything to do with the wizarding world, and, quite frankly, Lily was quite happy about this. Petunia had been a real pain all summer—it seemed like she had turned all of Lily's old friends against her. She had apparently told them that Lily was off at a boarding school for mentally disabled girls. Now, they all looked at her like she was some sort of freak.

"Lily dear!" came the call of her mother from downstairs. From the rattling of pots and pans, she guessed her mum was in the kitchen.

"Yeah Mum?" Lily answered. Knowing what her mum was going to say, she began getting ready to leave for Diagon Alley.

"We need to leave in five minutes!" her mum called back.

"Okay!" Lily shouted, racing to the mirror to pull her hair back into a ponytail.

After deeming herself perfect, she went downstairs and into the kitchen. She paced over to the refrigerator and pulled her school supplies list down from it. She looked over one more time she to make sure she had it memorized. She would also stock up on owl food and potion ingredients.

All Second Year Students are required to have:

_The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_

by Miranda Goshawk

_A Students Guide to Defense_

by Lavonia von Dixon

Once she thought she had it, she put the list in her pocket and went to her car to wait for her mum there. The ride to London was fairly long and Lily got bored easily. For her entertainment, her mother brought her _To Kill a Mockingbird_. It was a novel by an American author, Harper Lee. It was set in the 1930's, during the American Depression. It was one of Lily's favorite stories—she never tired of reading it.

After what seemed like ages, they arrived at the Leaky Cauldron. Her mother had never been to Diagon Alley before and didn't know how to get in. In fact, the only witch or wizard she'd met besides Lily was Hagrid, and he wasn't technically a wizard. Lily walked through the Leaky Cauldron quickly. It was quarter after eleven and she was supposed to have met Emmie fifteen minutes ago. She went outside and her mom came out the door, practically running after her.

Once in Diagon Alley, she ran down the streets, past chattering students, to Flourish and Blots. She saw Emmie standing outside with an elderly couple that she supposed were Emmie's grandparents.

"Emmie!" she shouted, racing across the street to get to her friend.

"Lily!" Emmie called back, just as much excitement in her voice.

Emmie was the first of the two to speak after they had finish hugging. "How was your summer? I missed you so much!"

"It was alright." Lily said. "Petunia was being more a freak than usual, but it was good to see my parents again. What about you?"

"It was alright. Sort of depressing, you know." Emmie said shrugging. She was never one to take things too heavily. In fact, Lily had been surprised in how well she had coped with her parents' death.

"Yeah…" Lily began, but she stopped when she looked over Emmie's shoulders and saw two boys walking around, laughing—two boys who she really didn't want to see.

"JAMES! SIRIUS!" Elizabeth Potter screamed, getting frustrated with the boys who were seemingly impossible to arouse. "YOU NEED TO WAKE UP NOW!"

Yet again, the boys didn't stir. Finally reaching a boiling point, Elizabeth Potter aimed her wand right at her sons face and shot a squirt of water. James face immediately tightened, his hands then came up and found his face and he wiped the water off of it. Once he had gotten over the initial shock and opened his eyes, James spoke to his mother.

"Bloody hell, mum," he said, irritated, "what was that for?"

"We need to go into town to get your school supplies today. If you two kept sleeping the way you were, we wouldn't be able to get there until lunch. By that time the whole place is swarming with shoppers. As it is, it's nine thirty."

"Can I please have ten more minutes?"

"No, I need you to go into the bathroom, wash your face and then go downstairs and get breakfast started for you and Sirius."

"Fine," James said, giving in, "but just warning you, you're gonna need a lot more water to wake him up." He said, gesturing in Sirius' direction.

A good half an hour later, James, Sirius and Mrs. Potter were heading toward the fireplace, Mrs. Potter carrying a small bowl of Floo Powder. Sirius went first—he pinched his fingers around some powder, stepped into the fireplace and said "Knockturn Alley" in a clear voice. James rushed in after him, grabbing a handful of Floo Powder, and jumping into the fireplace. Before his mum could stop him, he threw the Floo Powder down on the ground and shouted "Knockturn Alley!" at the top of his lungs.

Once the familiar rushing sensation had gone away, James climbed out of the fireplace and looked up at Sirius.

"Hey. Whatcha looking at?" he asked Sirius.

"Just this hand thing, if you touch it, it'll glow. Try it." Sirius said, stepping back and gesturing for James to try out the hand light.

James then reached out to touch the hand. When he was about four inches away, the hand clamped down over his hand. Sirius burst out laughing as James struggled to free his hand from the hand's clasp.

When Sirius finally gained control of himself, he managed to say, "You'll have to have better reflexes than that if you wanna try out for the Quidditch team.

James was about to answer, but at the very moment he opened his mouth, a man came out from the back room. James ducked so quickly that he pulled his hand out from the hand's grab. "Ow!" he moaned, "God damn it!"

Sirius just turned and looked at the man. The man stood at the counter, writing something down on a piece of paper.

"Oh my God! This is Knockturn Alley?" Sirius asked.

James just shrugged and said "I guess so."

"I've been here loads of times with my mum. She buys dark wizard things here—I didn't know it was Knockturn Alley though. I always though that Knockturn Alley would be a lot better than this. That's a major let down!" Sirius explained.

"So is this what the whole town's like?" James asked.

"Yeah, pretty much." Sirius said, "Or at least what I've seen of it."

After what seemed like ages, Mr. Brocklehurst finally disappeared behind the double doors and into the back room. Not willing to wait any longer, James and Sirius sprinted out of the door and into the rest of Knockturn Alley.

"Any idea how to get out of here?" James shouted at Sirius.

"Ermm…yeah, follow me." Sirius wasn't exactly sure how to get to Diagon Alley from there, but he had an idea.

After running for a quarter mile, Sirius looked behind James to ask how he was doing. Before James could warn him, Sirius ran straight into Dung. It was a complete mess—cauldrons flying everywhere.

"Hey!" Dung croaked, "You kids watch where you're going!"

"Sorry Dung," Sirius said, picking up some cauldrons and handing them to him.

"How do you know my name?" Dung asked in his croaky, drunken sounding voice.

"Ermm…my mom." Sirius said. If Dung really was drunk, he wouldn't really be listening.

"Listen…err…Dung. We were wondering if you could take us to Diagon Alley." James asked, seeing if he could put running into Dung to use.

"I've got some business to attend to."

"Could you show us the way, then?" Sirius asked hopefully.

"Yeah, go 15 block that way," Dung pointed in the opposite direction "and then turn right. Walk 4 more blocks and then turn right again. Keep on going and then you'll get to Diagon Alley." Dung explained.

James turned and gaped at Sirius. Sirius, taking his cue, ran as fast as he could along the path that Dung had dictated. He was laughing, he couldn't help himself. It was sort of funny when James got all pissed off. About half way through the trip, James started laughing too. He had to admit, it was sort of funny. Also, it wasn't Sirius' fault he didn't know his way around a dark wizard town.

About 7 blocks after the last turn, the boys saw a sign indicating that they were entering Diagon Alley. The ran passed Gringots and to the entrance of Flourish and Blots. James turned to see to girls that he recognized from Hogwarts.

"So Evans," he said casually, "missed me much over the summer?"

"No." Lily retorted, she wasn't going to take any of his beef this year.

"Pity, I missed you. But I had plenty of time to dream up ideas for this year." James said.

"Don't even think of cursing me Potter." Lily said, taking her wand out of her robes.

"Oh bring it on." James said competitively, taking his wand out of his robes.

"I'm his second!" Sirius said eagerly.

"I'm hers." Emmie said loyally.

"Blah! I don't need a second! But I'd get ready if I were you, Vance." James told Emmie.

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that Potter. Lily's a damn good dueler." Emmie said defiantly.

Lily felt very confused, but her face remained set. The only thing she knew right now was that she wanted to split James into a thousand pieces.

"No one can beat James." Sirius argued.

"Do I sense some inter-house dueling going on hear?" came the drawling voice of Lucius Malfoy. "Oh. You're fighting a mudblood." He said, looking at Lily, "By all means, finish her off Potter."

"Don't call her a you-know what!" Emmie shouted.

Sirius and James jumped on top of Malfoy and started tackling him to the ground. James was sitting on top of him, pointing his wand between Malfoy's eyes. "Don't…use…that…word…" he said, slightly out of breath.

"What's so wrong with the word 'mudblood'?" Lily asked, confused.

"Shhhhh!" James and Sirius said at the same time.

"It's a rude name for a witch or wizard who's parents don't have magic blood. Some wizards or witches, like the Malfoys or the Blacks, pride themselves in being what they call 'Pureblood'. That means that they come from purely magic families. It's sort of gross though, because all pureblood families are related somehow. I mean would you rather marry your cousin or a muggle?" Emmie explained.

"Oh…" Lily said. This was probably one of those things that she would never fully understand since she was a 'mudblood' like Malfoy had said. Sort of like the prejudice of werewolves.

When Lily turned around again, James and Sirius were gone but Malfoy was still there in a full body bind. 'Why did they help me?' Lily wondered, 'A few seconds ago, James was ready to kill me. Why did he all of a sudden stand up for me when Malfoy merely called me a name? It's probably because he's an immature freak who would hurt somebody for any reason. At least if he hurt Malfoy, he would have a reason and could most likely avoid getting in trouble.' But as she saw a woman yelling at James and Sirius in the distance, she doubted that they had.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The summer was drawing to an end and Lily and Emmie were preparing to go back to school. Lily wasn't exactly sure how she felt about this. On one hand she was excited to return to school and to see her teachers again. On the other hand, she and Emmie had had a blast during the last few weeks of summer. To her surprise, Emmie was fascinated with all muggle things. She had spent hours watching the TV and laughing with the funny characters—she never tired of it.

"Ewww! Get your disgusting _thing_ away from my new sweater!" Petunia shrieked, interrupting Lily's thoughts by pointing to Lily's wand which had somehow landed on top of her sweater. She then picked up the wand with two fingers and tossed it at Lily.

"For one thing, it's not a '_thing'_ it's a wand that I could blast you into smithereens with." Lily retorted, mocking the way Petunia said "_thing_." "And for another," she continued, "DON'T THROW IT AROUND!"

"You can't blast me into smithereens," Petunia scoffed, "mummy said that you're not allowed to use ma…ma…magic outside of school." She said "magic" like she was a third grader stumbling over a particularly hard word during spelling class.

"Watch me," Lily challenged, rolling up her sleeves and pretending like she was about to perform a spell.

"Just keep your wand off my sweater." Petunia said, exiting out of the room in a hurry, just in case Lily was serious.

"Don't worry, I will. I don't want your germs getting all over it!" Lily called after her.

"MORE LIKE **YOUR **GERMS FROM **YOUR **WAND GETTING ALL OVER **MY **SWEATER!" Petunia yelled back angrily.

Lily just shook her head at how easy it was to frighten her sister. Did Petunia really think that Lily would disobey a wizard law? How could someone be so unperceptive as to not know somebody that they had grown up with for twelve years?

Elizabeth Potter had to threaten James and Sirius by claiming she would take out the Quidditch pitch if they didn't get down from it and started with their packing. After about fifteen minutes of protest, the begrudgingly flew down and ran upstairs to James' room. Once up there, Sirius started stuffing his robes, books, wand, and supplies into his trunk absent-mindedly. James however just sat on his bed, staring into space. It took Sirius about fifteen minutes to notice that he wasn't doing anything.

"You okay?" he asked, looking at his friend in concern.

Sirius looking concerned was enough to make anyone laugh, especially when he was forcing it, as he obviously was right then. "Yeah, I guess." James shrugged.

Sirius then went back to his packing until James interrupted him.

"Do you think I'll make the team?" James asked.

"What?" Sirius asked, shaking his head.

"Do you think I'm good enough to be a chaser on the Quidditch team?" James clarified.

"Oh!" Sirius said, finally comprehending James' question. "Yeah, of course—you got past me on almost every shot."

"Yeah, but you're not that great of keeper." James stated bluntly.

"Yeah, I'd have to agree with you there mate. I can picture myself as a beater though." Sirius said, sitting down on his bed and crossing his arms. "Besides, girls dig beaters."

"I can't picture you as anything!" James laughed. He couldn't contain himself—he just kept laughing until a pillow, thrown by Sirius, hit him square in the face.

It was six o'clock on the 31st of August and Elizabeth Potter was certain that her son was not going to miss the train this year. She woke them up as she always did—by pouring a bucket of water on their heads. When that didn't work, she dragged them halfway downstairs until the finally got annoyed and walked down themselves. 'They're too young to be sleeping in this late,' she thought to herself, shaking her head.

James and Sirius each ate their three bowels of cereal while waiting for James' mum to finish their breakfast of eggs.

"You know, I'm not as hungry at six o'clock in the morning." James exclaimed while yawning.

"Good," Elizabeth said, "then two eggs will suit fine?"

"Whatever…" James said in answer, laying his head on the table.

"Don't you fall asleep young man," his mother warned, pointing a threatening finger at him, "or you won't get any money for train ride."

"I'm up, I'm up!" James said loudly, sitting up as quickly as if the table had just burned him.

"While I finish these eggs, you boys go up and bring your trunks to the front door."

"But mum!" James whined, "It's 16:15 in the morning, the train doesn't leave until eleven—and it only takes a half hour to get into London."

"Yes I know, I'm, however, going to drop you two off early to show you how good it feels to be early." Elizabeth said simply.

"It feels boring." Sirius muttered.

"What was that Sirius?" Elizabeth asked pleasantly.

Sirius coughed in reply. "Sorry Mrs. Potter, I have a bit of a cold."

"That's what I thought. Now finish your homework and get into muggle taxi, it should be here any moment."

"What about our trunks, mum?" James asked.

"You just finish eating, I'll get your trunks." Elizabeth assured. She then took out her wand and muttered "Accio!" The trunks came zooming down the stairs and landed with a THUD!

Within the next half-hour, the trunks, the boys and the mom were all loaded in the car and headed toward the station. The car ride was long and boring, with the two usually hyper boys tired, it added less light to the whole affair. James wasn't looking forward to starting his classes up again. He'd enjoyed the time away from work and wasn't looking forward to making up new excuses for not doing his homework.

He'd thought he'd done very well last year, considering how hard it was. However, his parents weren't too happy when they'd found out he'd gotten a D in History of Magic and a P in Potions. He hadn't meant for them to see it, but he'd made the mistake of leaving his grade slip on his bed with all the other things that his parents found it necessary to go through of his. He had tried to convince them that P stood of Perfect and D for delightful, but that didn't go over so well.

He then decided to go another route and told his parents that his teachers were being biased against him and that the exams were completely subjective. Since Binns had been their forever, and both of his parents knew that his tests were just jotting down a bunch of names and dates, they didn't go for that one either.

When they reached the station, the boys gave their stuff to the conductor and went to get into their cart, or the cart that they sat in last year anyways. However, when they got there, they found that it was already occupied.

Lily and Emmie were discussing what they'd heard second year was like when they were interrupted by two cocky boys.

"What are you doing in _OUR _cart?" he asked in his abnormally loud voice.

"I didn't your names on it." Emmie retorted.

"But we sat here last year!" James said stubbornly.

"The only reason you sat here last year was because you came late and it was the only cart available." Lily pointed out.

"Nuhh uhh!" Sirius said in a babyish town for lack of anything better to say.

"I know!" James agreed, "I mean, how easy would it be to kick Peter Pettigrew out of a compartment?"

"Yeah!" Sirius said, in the same tone.

"Besides, I was sitting this compartment too, remember?" Lily stated.

"But you left halfway through the train ride." James recalled.

"Anyways, first come, first serve. Those are the rules." Lily informed them.

"Since when have we paid attention to the rules?" Sirius asked. "Now get out of here before I curse you into the oblivion!"

"And he will do it!" James added as a side note.

"Whatever." Emmie said shaking her head and pulling Lily out with her. "They're not worth it." James heard her mutter to Lily. He however, chose to ignore this.

"Exploding Snap?" Sirius asked cheerfully, taking a deck of cards out from his robe pocket.

"Sure." James shrugged, sitting down and rolling up his sleeves.

The start of term feast had gone exactly the same as the year before, Lily decided. After it, she said good night to Emmie and begrudgingly started up to her room to see her room mates for the first time since last term. When she got up there, she saw three of them sitting in a circle, laughing.

"Where's the other girl?" Lily asked casually.

Kaitlyn shrugged but Marlene said "Can't you see we're in the middle of something here?"

"Sorry," Lily shrugged, before getting into bed.

After laying there for a few minutes, she saw light coming through her curtains and Rachel's face popped in. "Hey," she said, "Wanna play?"

"Play what?" Lily asked.

"Truth or Dare," Rachel said mysteriously—she had a mysterious air about her. That is, as mysterious as can be for a twelve year old. Or maybe Rachel was thirteen, Lily couldn't remember.

Lily didn't have anything else to do and she wasn't tired, so she got in the circle—in between Kaitlyn and Rachel.

"I'll go first!" Rachel self-appointed herself.

"Kaitlyn, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Have you ever seen a condom?"

"EWWW! NO!"

"Okay it's your turn now!"

"Okay…erm…Rachel, truth or dare?"

"Err…how about, truth."

"How far have you gone with a guy?"

"You mean numbers wise?"

Kaitlyn nodded.

"One…and…2—but only a little bit!"

"OH MY GOD!" Marlene shrieked. "WHO?"

Rachel blushed a little bit, "Frank," she admitted.

Lily had no idea what they were talking about, but she didn't want to admit it. She just hoped that she didn't get a question like the first two.

"Okay it's my turn. I choose Marlene"

"Okay." Marlene said, looking up at her.

"Truth or Dare?"

"Truth"

"Err…have you ever thought about getting castrated?"

"WHAT? NO!" Marlene shrieked.

"So you wanna have kids?"

"Probably not."

"Why not then?" Rachel pressed.

"Cause it's gross…just the thought of it! Do you?"

"I believe I get the choice of Truth or Dare."

"No I wasn't asking that to you…I was just wondering…but, never mind. I choose Lily, truth or dare?"

Not wanting to know what their dares would be like Lily said, "Truth."

"Are you a virgin?"

Oh great, Lily had no clue what this was—she couldn't tell them though, or they'd think less of her than they already did. It was probably something gross though, all the other ones certainly were. So her best bet was to say no.

"EWW! NO! Of course not!"

As if on cue, all three of the other girls burst out laughing.

"What?" Lily asked, confused, "What's the matter?"

"Who's the lucky guy?" Rachel asked through giggles.

"What?" Lily asked, even more confused.

"Who did you have sex with?" Rachel clarified.

A/N: I am SO sorry that that took so long to get out there. Don't worry though, I am not done with this book and I will definitely keep posting. I will try to get a lot done this weekend, so then I will have a bunch to post over the next couple of weeks. However, I can't promise anything. I'm sorry the posts have been so much slower it's just I've been really busy lately:-( Still, please leave any comments, reviews, complaints, or constructive criticism that you have:-)


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